There Will Be Another Time
by BoneDaddyAinz
Summary: He always worked better alone, but Noble Team had changed that, Noble 6 understood the value of a team, to have someone watching your back, but he also learned the pain that comes with losing those you forged bonds with in a baptism of fire. In this war there is no rest for the weary, his miraculous survival means little and he's sent back into the fray to continue the fight.
1. There Will Be Another Time, But Not Now

"_They say that after losing someone, it will get easier, that eventually the pain will go away, but that's not true. The truth is, life will never be the same, there will always be a hole where that person was, but eventually, you have to learn to accept that and let yourself suffer. Once you accept that you'll never be whole again, you can remember them in all their joy and all their pain. You don't want to remember the pain, but you have to take it, because when you do you can also take all the joy, happiness, and love that those people gave you." __**– Psychiatrist Dr. Martin Hernandez in a grief seminar for UNSC troops**_

* * *

The darkness of the void slowly faded and gave way to light, his eyes opening but the light, blinding in its brilliance, caused the spartan to squint until his eyes became adjusted to the brightness. When his eyes no longer burned under the light, he was able to see a white ceiling above him, pure and unblemished, unlike the skies of Reach, dirtied and sullied by the Covenant glassing. Wait, Reach…how…how was he alive. He stayed behind on the MAC gun so the Pillar of Autumn could leave, his body should be on Reach with the rest of Noble Team, how and why was he still alive. Taking stock of the room around him, it seemed to be a standard medical facility, but it gave him no clues as to wear he was. Attempting to prop himself on his elbows, Six hissed as he felt a searing pain in his abdomen. Looking down, he saw his body was almost entirely covered in bandages, he laid back down and felt a flow of relief as the pain started to diminish. It was a miracle he was alive, just from what he could remember, he'd taken a barrage of plasma bolts and even an energy sword or two, though his memory was fuzzy in his seemingly final moments.

He was taken out of his musings when the door to his room swooshed open, he turned to see a trio of what seemed to be doctors enter the room. The head of the trio spoke first, he seemed to be an older man, his black hair streaked with strands of grey and a light beard covering his face.

"Ah, I was starting to wonder if you'd ever wake up, welcome back to the land of the living Lieutenant. I'm Doctor Kavish, I've been monitoring your health for the past week since you were brought in."

"Where am I sir? And…how did I get here?"

"You're aboard the UNSC _Return to Sender,_ commanded by Admiral Montinaro. AS for how you're here, well I'm not too sure. A pelican arrived at some point with you aboard it, pilot couldn't say anything other than they got orders from somewhere way above my clearance, don't know anything more than that, just that you've got some powerful people looking over you."

. I'm sure you have many questions, but first I'd like to run a couple quicks tests just to monitor you overall health."

Six nodded and the two people behind Doctor Kavish began to move around, checking various monitors around the room, jotting down notes, and comparing data. Doctor Kavish pulled up a chair next to Six's bedside and flip to a new page on his clip board.

"I'd like to ask you a couple questions about any pains you're feeling and what you remember…"

The time passed with the doctor asking questions and Six answering. Though the entire time his mind was preoccupied with his situation, he felt… hollow. He'd always been alone, hence the nickname Lone Wolf, and it suited him fine, but his time under Noble had reminded him of his training, the comradery he'd felt his brothers and sisters. Fate was cruel though, and just when he'd felt he'd earned his place in Noble, it had been ripped away, everyone of their deaths burned into his memory, and just when he thought he join them in the dirt of Reach he was saved. What made him special? Soldiers were expendable, he had no delusions about that, so why had they come for him? But wait; not everyone had died on Reach, there was still one.

The doctor was still talking, "-so it shouldn't be long before-"

"What happened to Jun?" Six interrupted, realizing his unusual outburst as the doctors in the room stared, he explained, "I apologize sir, but what happened to the last member of Nobel team. Jun A-226, Noble Three?"

If Doctor Kavish was bothered by the outburst he didn't show it, "I figured you ask eventually, from what I know, Noble Three and Doctor Halsey successfully escaped Reach. What happened afterwards is out of my pay grade. You can get the rest of the details later from Admiral Montinaro, but for now I think we've got all the data we needed." The doctor continued talking but began to gather his materials to leave, "Its quite miraculous that you survived. Your body suffered heavy plasma burns and had a few punctures from an energy sword, the stab to your abdomen missed any vital organs, but you received several artificial organ transplants. There's another stab wound that occurred on your left shoulder, but that was the least serious of your injuries. We managed to repair any motor damage your body suffered but the plasma burns will leave permanent scaring and nervous system damage. You'll function the same as you ever did, but you'll occasionally notice light spasms or momentary numbing; you'll most likely feel occasional pain in your left shoulder where the energy blade pierced you as well."

Six simply nodded, none of this really affected him, he was a Spartan and as long as he could still take orders and fight at optimal capacity, then he was fine with anything.

"When will I be combat ready?"

"Normally I'd say in over a month, but I've been told you already have your next assignments, and nothing stops a Spartan. You'll be discharged in a couple days after we run a few more tests, although I'd advise against pushing yourself for at least a week or two. Your body still needs time to heal and adjust." With that the trio of doctors took their leave, leaving Six alone the sterile room, stuck with his thoughts.

In the bridge of the UNSC _Return to Sender,_ Admiral Jared Montinaro stared across the inky expanse of space, his mind lost to his thoughts. It'd been difficult losing Reach, it was valued almost as much as Earth and now it was glassed and lost to the covenant. It seemed only matter of time before the Covenant found Earth, and that revelation had only damped the already gloomy mood of the crew aboard his ship. Sighing, he rubbed his temples until a voice crackled in through his earpiece, "Sir, the spartan has regained consciousness." He acknowledged the alert and went back to his musings, but now with a slightly less cynical outlook, at least not everything was falling apart around them. He wouldn't deny the strangeness of it all, first he gets notified that they'll be receiving an unconscious spartan, then ONI alerts him to a classified shipment, presumably for the spartan. While Admiral Montinaro wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, all of this would make his current assignment infinitely easier, he couldn't deny his curiosity into the matter.

"Alexander," He called for the ship's on-board A.I, "What do we know about the spartan and this mysterious package we received?" A teal holographic projection appeared, showing a middle-aged man adorned in ancient Macedonian armor.

"Lieutenant Oliver Cassian, formerly known as Noble 6, born on Jericho VII of the Lambda Serpentis system in June 3, 2523, age 29. He was recently assigned to Noble Team on Reach, his first assignment with Noble Team leading to the discovery of the Covenant on Reach, how unfortunate. Previous to Noble Team, his record is largely classified, however some things slip through the cracks and I can make a fairly confident guess that he did wet work for ONI, though anything more would simply be guessing on my part. As for the unknown object, I can't say for sure, I can't find any records pertaining to it, but with how little we were told I'm not surprised."

Admiral Montinaro simply nodded, "It's a hell of a thing this war. This spartan was unlucky enough to get stationed on Reach right as the battle starts, loses his entire team save one though they'll most likely never meet again. Almost dies but then gets saved, and immediately after is put back into action. It seems hard to believe to humanity could lose any more, but with the covenant it seems anything is possible."

Alexander waited a bit before speaking, "That's what they're made for Admiral, same as I'm made to serve this ship."

Montinaro looked at her before turning his head away, staring once again in the vast expanse that once held so much wonder for mankind, now it only holds fear. It reminds him of when he was a child, looking up at the stars through his telescope, wondering if they'd ever meet other life. How things have changed, he spoke up once more, "I suppose so, but they're still human."

The time that Six, or rather Lieutenant Cassian now, had been resting for, was a rather short amount of time given the circumstances, but for him it had been agonizing. He was no stranger to waiting and patience, but that had all been in the field, he'd still been alert and focused, spending hours completely still just waiting for the split-second opening on a Sangheili field marshal or officer. Now though; in this room with absolutely nothing to occupy his mind or body, everything seemed to crawl at a snail's pace. So, when one of Doctor Kavish's assistant came to let him know that he was free to move around, he hadn't wasted a second in leaving that room and heading towards the armory to gather his gear. It felt strange being out of armor, ever since his deployment on Reach he'd been in almost non-stop conflict, he'd taken his helmet off a grand total of one time, and that was after the Battle of Viery when storms in the area had blown grains of sand into his filter. Even before Reach he could count on two hands the amount of time he had been completely out of armor; if he ever had extended periods break, rare as they were, he'd at the least keep on armored bodysuit, he'd had to be able to get into his armor at a moments notice.

Finding his way around the ship wasn't difficult, most UNSC ships shared largely similar designs, so getting to the armory on a _Stalwart_-class frigate was no challenge. Even outside of his armor he could be seen a mile out, standing at around seven feet in armor, he wasn't much shorter out of it. Passing by members of the ship crew and other soldiers, he could hear their whispers and questions, he'd learn to ignore their stares and sickly fascinations.

"_Holy shit did you see that guy? He must've been a spartan right? Who else is that fuckin' big."_ One soldier whispered to his group as they passed by.

"_Definitely, those scars are a dead giveaway, but when did we get a spartan? I don't remember one leaving with us at our last stop."_

"_I heard from a friend in the medical sector, a pelican dropped him off a week or two ago, Oni bullshit or whatever. But apparently, the dude got fucked up like no other, last survivor from Reach."_

"_No fucking way, you're pulling my leg-"_

Oliver tuned out their conversation the further away they got, it wasn't long before he reached the armory. Apparently, they'd been expecting him, he was immediately led into a side room where his armor was laid out on a several tables, like an offering. About half of the armor overall was replaced, the helmet had obviously been a lost cause, but they'd tried to keep as much of the original as possible and that worked fine for him. He wasn't particularly sentimental about armor, it served his use and kept him alive, though he did appreciate that the color scheme was the same, the only real difference being the lack of the Nobel Team emblem. He'd almost opened his mouth, almost told the technician to add the symbol, almost…just like he'd almost wished he died back on Reach. Almost. He'd honor their sacrifices by living, by fighting the covenant, he'd make sure their deaths weren't in vain and their trust in him was well place, but it was also time for him to move on. Death was a fact of war, they died just as so many other soldiers did, it served no purpose to dwelling the past, he was apart of Noble Team, but not anymore. He grabbed his helmet and saw his reflection staring back at him, immediately getting flashbacks to his trip to Nobile's mobile base, he wiped his thumb across the visor almost subconsciously before placing it back with the rest of his gear.

While most Spartans generally relied on technicians and the help of machines equip their armor, it wasn't unusual for some to learn to do it themselves. Oliver's knowledge of the technique came more from necessity than anything else. His solo missions would occasionally require him to repair malfunctions or severe damage that comprised his suit, and with most of his assignments never being 'official', he'd had to make do while in the field. He snapped himself out of his musings, he'd had enough of doing nothing, he was ready to get back out into the field.

When the spartan stepped into the bridge, his attention was immediately caught to the windows, the everlasting expanse of space rolling out in front of him. It reminded him of his times as a SABER pilot, sitting in the cockpit flying through the emptiness, he'd actually enjoyed it quite a bit, he'd never say this but he had been glad he'd been able to put his skills to use for Noble Team. He continued through the bridge, unsurprisingly the crew had seen very little of any spartan, he marched up to Admiral Montinaro and saluted, "Sir". The admiral was a middle-aged man, most likely in his late 40s. His hair was a dirty blonde wept back, he face was clean, but the side of his head displayed light signs of shrapnel damage and possible burns.

The Admiral waved his saluted down, "At ease Lieutenant. How are you feeling spartan? It hasn't been long since you were brought here, are you sure you're ready for combat?"

"Yessir, there's not much else I'm good for. Staying cooped up in a single room wasn't for me, I'd rather be back out in the fight." He briefly thought to himself if he'd ever be able to make it as a commercial airline pilot if this war ended, he gave a mirthless chuckle to himself, not that he'd survive till the end of the war anyway.

Admiral Montinaro nodded and walked towards the command console, he followed close beyond but said nothing. The admiral pulled up a holographic projection of a planet, Tridian Vale.

"This was our destination before you came aboard, and still is. Tridian Vale, its largely an industrial colony, lots of raw materials, refineries, ship construction, etcetera. Not a major player in the galactic scale, but at this point in the war we can't afford to lose anything more." A series of red dots appeared on the projection, spread out across the globe but mostly focused near the northern ice cap, and near the equator in what seemed to a large jungle, the admiral continued. "These dots represent what we believe are insurrectionist forces. You'd think they'd stop this late into the war, but their trying to ply any advantage they can. We know that one major player is one Julo Hagasawa; very outspoken against the UNSC, has been tied but never officially to a series of innie operations, and recently moved his operation to Tridian Vale. He's extremely charismatic and fairly intelligent, for now his following is small, but he's bound to pick up a growing number of supporters in a blue-collar planet, especially since they've been lucky enough to avoid the covenant thus far. The plan is straightforward, we need to find him and eliminate him before he manages to disrupt production."

The spartan nodded, this was very similar to his work as a lone wolf, nothing he couldn't do, he brought up his own experience, "It's unlikely he'll be at either of the two major areas we suspect. Insurrectionists have to play by different rules, so its likely he has a trusted subordinate he relays his orders through, meanwhile he plans from a smaller location elsewhere."

Admiral Montinaro nodded in agreement, "Our original plan was to have two simultaneous strike forces hit the major suspected areas, find any relevant information while prevent the bases from alerting the other, but with you here we have some flexibility. What would you suggest?"

Oliver stared at the map; he'd prefer to do this silently. He agreed that the best choice before him would've been a simultaneous attack, it prevents the other base from getting a possible warning, but its loud, and it'd draw a lot of attention. There's also the likely possibility that someone on base would alert Hagasawa and all their work would be for naught. It'd be much better to do a silent operation, either ghost the base and only look for information, or take out every insurrectionist. "I think it'd best if I handle this operation alone, no disrespect to your crew sir. Going in loud, even if it is simultaneous, poses too many risks for losing the target. I feel that our chances are better if I go in silently, turn the base into a ghost-town before they can get an alarm out. If I can't find what we need at the first location, I can then immediately get an exfil to the second base."

"Understood, but before we continue, I have a new piece of equipment from ONI for you." Reaching behind him, the admiral grabbed a sizable silicon-colored container and handed it to Oliver, the spartan giving slight tilt of his head at the offering. "I know about it as much as you do Lieutenant, typical ONI."

Lieutenant Cassian turned the container around in his hands, examining it from every possible angle before he opened it. Inside the container was what appeared to be a small chip black as obsidian, in the middle of a chip was a translucent circle almost as clear as air. Gently he pulled the chip out between his thumb and index finger and laid in flat in the palm of his hand. Soon after, a navy-blue projection shot out, it was a rather beautiful figure wearing old Nordic armor, with avian stylings, a pair of seemingly metallic wings attached to the armor. It looked up at the spartan, seemingly sizing him up before speaking, "My name is Kara, a combat A.I, I'm named after a Valkyrie of old, and you must be Lieutenant Cassian. It seems your actions on Reach gained the attention of many, I've heard quite a bit about you but I'm more interested if you can live up to your reputation." She crossed her arms and continued staring at the spartan with a disinterested look. He had known that the UNSC and ONI had been trying out combat A.I in the field, all spartan-IIs and the few spartan-IIIs that got Mjolnir-class armor had received Spartan Neural Interfaces which allowed them to integrate an A.I if given, though he wasn't aware of this happening. She reminded him of Emile, he laughed briefly to himself, they probably would've gotten along. He nodded to her and the projection disappeared, holding the chip between his fingers he examined it for a moment longer before he slid it into the slot in the back of is helmet.

"Try not to get me killed spartan, there's two of us in here now, and no I can't read your thoughts. We're still separate, so if you need to communicate with me, you'll still need to speak aloud." The feeling of hearing her without actually…hearing her was strange, t was an experience like no other and he had no way to describe it. He focused himself and looked towards the admiral.

"Well spartan, this has certainly been a unique experience for both of us, but its time to begin prepping for the mission. We'll arrive at Tridian Vale at approximately 1400, that gives you three hours to gather your gear and check your weapons. I'll have a pelican on stand-by for you when we get close. Should I give you a small fireteam to provide support in case it becomes necessary?"

Noble Team and been his first time working in a squad, he'd followed Carter's command and left his lone wolf tendencies behind. In the end he felt that he had started to form some bonds with the rest of Noble Team, with Kat and Emile he felt an almost familial connection, but that had been taken by the hand of the covenant, the tides of fate are needlessly cruel. In a way he'd envied Jorge, the man had believed Reach saved and his team alive. No, this work was what he was made for, solo ops, infiltration, wet-work, he worked better alone, connections with others would only hamper his efficiency. He'd been told by ONI, that his hyper-lethal rating was only because of his lone wolf efficiency, a team would only bring him down, and they'd only give him more people to lose. It was dangerous to form connections, especially as a spartan-III, expendable as glorified kamikaze soldiers.

"Negative sir, I work better alone."


	2. Back to Basics

"For the time being, you'll be under my direct command Lieutenant. You'll need a new designation, Noble-6 no longer works, for obvious reasons, and on the off-chance that someone picks up our communications. For now, you'll be known as Pharaoh-1, and your pilot will be Pharaoh-2, understand?"

Lieutenant Cassian, no longer Noble-6, snapped a crisp salute, "Understood sir." At this point he'd been called so many different titles it barely even registered, just a new name for the same old work.

Now he stood in the hangar bay waiting for orders, sitting upon a stack of crates and checking his weapons for the umpteenth time. Admiral Montinaro had simply told him to wait in the hangar until his pilot arrived, until then, he could be reliving his memories of bootcamp and weapon assembly. His mind went into autopilot as he disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled the SRS 99C Anti-Material Rifle in front of him, despite his hatred of doing nothing, this process was almost meditative in a way.

"_Is this all you plan on doing while we wait Lieutenant?_" Kara questioned, it would still take some time to get used to her… speaking, but the innumerable benefits outweighed whatever minor discomfort he felt.

"Nothing else to do, just waiting to get back to the fight."

She was silent for a brief moment, "_Is fighting all that interest you?_"

His hands briefly paused during his assembly before he quickly went back to work, "I'd hesitate to call it an interest, but it's all I know. At this point it seems that without it, I get anxious, but I never enjoyed it like Emile did."

"_Emile-A239 correct? He was a valiant warrior; his ferocity and bravery will be missed._"

Cassian adjusted the stock of the SRS and put it down next to him, he sighed and stared out across the hangar. "He will, surprisingly enough I felt I was closest to him out of all of Noble Team, always said I spoke too much like a 'spook', he wasn't wrong though." Cassian's work had always been under ONI jurisdiction, and as such he rarely ever interacted with those outside of the shadowy organization, this meant his speech was more formal than the typical grunts of the UNSC.

"Man look at that oversized tin-can, you freaks so lonely that you have to talk to yourselves?" Cassian sighed and looked up to see who had interrupted his 'conversation', but he already had a feeling he knew who it was, ODSTs. His suspicions were confirmed when he looked up to see a trio of the obsidian-clad special forces standing in front of him, he usually worked alone but he wasn't naïve, he knew about the animosity between the ODST's and Spartans. In the field, the two of us could work together flawlessly, but when the fighting stopped? Well, it wasn't unusual for things to get heated.

"What do you think of our odds scrapheap? Three on one ain't bad right?"

Cassian tilted his head to face the group of ODSTs, their leaders face reflecting in his visor, "Normally I'd say that three ODSTs would have a decent chance, but you guys? You're probably better suited to gang-up on a grunt. He heard Kara laugh and mention something about being surprised that he still had some humor, but the trio was clearly not as entertained. Thankfully any further trouble was stopped by a staff sergeant, Cassian wasn't one to start trouble, but it would've taken far more than a few of them to take him on.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing you bunch of used tampons? Not only are you bunch of fucking rookies fresh out of training for the Urals, but you dumb motherfuckers don't even know who this guy is? You may have been some hotshots in Force Recon, but far as I'm concerned, you just finished suckin' off your mama's titties. When you survive your first drop, then you can call yourself a Bullfrog, am I clear?" The man screamed his throat raw, a chorus of embarrassed 'yessirs' followed before the man turned to Cassian. "Sorry bout that Lieutenant, but those boys were basically glorified latrine queen before they finished their training. Glad to see you made it out of New Alexandria alive, spartan or not, you helped a lot of people."

It was now that the pieces in his mind began to fall in place, the staff sergeant was one of the Bullfrogs he'd met up with during the siege. They'd barely even talked, but soldiers passed by so fast that meeting even a vaguely familiar face was also a pleasant sight. "Staff Sergeant McCarthy, nice to see you in one piece." they clasped hands in a firm shake.

SSGT McCarthy chuckled, "It'll take more than some primal apes to take me out, despite everything we managed to keep casualties to a minimum. Did you ever manage link back up with your squad?"

Cassian hummed, "Didn't last long though." The older man nodded in understanding before clapping him on the shoulder.

"Listen, my opinion of Spartans ain't much different from the others, but losing a team is never easy, and I don't know about anyone else but you're alright in my books. You need anything, come ask me, I'll see what I can do." Cassian gave a curt nod, with that the staff sergeant turned and went back to directing the fresh blood. Barely a second had passed before a new guest had appeared, "You Pharaoh-1?" Cassian turned his head to see a rather wry and young-looking man casually standing next to him, he had swept back dark brown hair and a pair of aviators resting atop his forehead.

_"__Aren't you popular today." _

He ignored Kara's remark, "What do you think?" Cassian responded dryly.

"Well I figured that there's probably only one augmented super soldier aboard this ship, specifically waiting in this hangar for me, but man it would've been awkward if I got the wrong guy. Better safe than sorry, besides what do you say to the man that can snap you in half like an uncooked spaghetti noodle." The man shrugged and started walking to a pelican across the hangar, Cassian equipped his gear and followed suit. "Names Ivan Yokovich, Petty Officer. You got a name?"

"Pharaoh-1."

"Whoa, how crazy that your name is also your callsign, your parents must've really hated you." Cassian sighed; this was going to be a long trip. They boarded the pelican and Ivan went into the cockpit, continuing to talk about some inane topic, while Cassian stowed his gear for drop. He heard the pilot running through his pre-flight check up but tuned out the noise and went over a mental checklist in his head for everything he'd need. The pelican's recognizable shaking and rumbling as it prepared to drop was a comfortable familiarity to him, for the first time since he was alone on Reach, he'd finally started to feel at ease, and for the first time in quite a while, he started the conversation first, "Kara, you know any good jokes?"


	3. Does This Suit Come With a Heater?

**Sipian Tundra, Eloch Province, Tridian Vale **

**16:37**

Cassian landed with a soft thud from the pelican, a flurry of snow blowing around him. He unholstered his SRS and held in loosely in front of him, the designated camp should only be about five klicks out, normally he wouldn't risk coming in so close, but an unusually large blizzard had been raging in the north pole for about a week now. The storm would keep the pelican obscured long enough for a quick drop-off, the pelican itself would land itself in a rocky outcropping ten klicks south of his position. He took one last check of his surroundings and began a light jog, he wasn't expecting heavy resistance at this outpost, the Insurrectionist movement here on Tridian Vale wasn't well organized and struggled to expand its influence of power. Still if they had managed to scavenge to old UNSC equipment and repair it well enough, that'd make things more difficult, and it was rare, but scavenged covenant weaponry had been known to make its way into the hands of criminals or insurrectionists.

_"__Its times like this when its nice to have the top of line the line armor, no? What's the plan?" _Kara remarked

"Avoid putting on a show. We don't want them to be able to alert Hasagawa."

_"__Good, I love action as much as the next A.I but I also despise complicating the mission more than necessary."_

Cassian didn't respond, but he tended to agree, he had no qualms about starting a firefight, but unlike Emile, he thrived in it, he'd much more preferred to deal with the objective first, whatever came after was secondary.

He slowed his light jog to walk, the outpost should be located just over the ridge in front of him. It was a rocky outcropping but nothing a spartan couldn't handle, he pulled himself up to the top of the ridge and shouldered his SRS, peering through the scope he began to scout out the outpost. It was located in a small dip in the land, the outpost itself consisted of four buildings with a long-range radio tower. Cassian panned his rifle across the small area, carefully observing every detail, he spotted four guards posted outside, two seemed to be in fixed positions on the edge of the outpost, the other two seemed to have a roving patrol. With four guards outside and assuming amateur command experience and lack of general manpower, the guards most likely go in rotations of 8 hours, meaning there's likely 12 guard stationed here, give or take a couple and maybe add on an extra member assuming the leader of the outpost doesn't participate in patrol. Eight or so insurrectionists spread out through the four buildings, it'd be best to get rid of the two roving guards first and then head to the comms center, it didn't matter if the engagement went loud as long as they couldn't get to the long-range radio.

"Kara, are you picking up any usual radio chatter? Any indication that they know where here?"

_"__Nope, quiet as a mouse, seems they don't even know the UNSC is in orbit. It's almost sad how ignorant and weak they are."_

With a plan set, he holstered his SRS to the magnetic strip on his back and climbed down the rocky ridge, hitting the ground with a soft thud. Crouching low he moved quickly to his first target, the individuals roving patrols followed the same path but on opposite ends. Once he took out the first, he'd just have to lie in wait for the second one to pass. The first patrolling guard walked behind one of the buildings and Cassian followed, standing up out of his crouch, he wrapped one hand around the man's mouth and the other hand around his throat. With a quick flex of his hand he crushed the man's throat and nary a sound was made. Grabbing the guard's body, Cassian moved the man's body and laid him down against the wall of building, the heavy snow would cover his body soon. Cassian walked towards the corner of the building and lied in wait for the second man to come, the only sound being the vicious storm until the sound of crunching snow began to grow. When the tip of the man's rifle appeared past the corner Cassian repeated his action, the man's throat snapping like a twig to the Spartan's strength. He lied the second corpse next to the first one and began to head towards the comms center.

There didn't appear to be any windows on any of the buildings, which made it nice to avoid detection, but also meant he had no way to confirm the number of hostiles in the building. Drawing his magnum, he slowly cracked the door an inch and peered in, there appeared to be three radio operators, two sitting at the large console and one standing in the corner seemingly reviewing information. He couldn't risk firing a shot at any of the two operators in front of the console, the UNSC would want it and he was unsure if the radio console had a fail-safe alert. Keeping his pistol out, he also drew his combat knife and continued to inch the door open until he had enough room. He flipped the knife in his hand and threw it at the nearest radio operator, the knife hit with a dull thud in the man's neck and blood began to spurt out, the man desperately trying to pull the knife out. Before the second operator at the console understood what had happened, Cassian sprinted towards him and pistol whipped him, a sickening crunch emanating from the mans face as he flew backwards out of his chair.

The final of three, still standing in the corner, fumbling with his radio and pistol, even if he wasn't panicking, its doubtful that he would've been faster than Cassian's magnum draw. The pistol meant specifically for Spartans to fight covenant was none too kind to a fleshly and barely armored target. A fist sized hole appeared in the man's chest and an equally devastating hole in the wall of the building, leading to a clear view of the blizzard outside.

When a small UNSC fireteam would arrive later to secure the outpost, they said it looked as if a ghost had cleared it. The insurrectionists had never got a shot off, instead they it looked as if they hadn't even known they'd been killed. A trio of insurrectionists were found sitting at a table playing poker, all their cards still held perfectly in their hands, their bodies so perfectly undisturbed in death that a rookie on the fireteam had accidently fired at one of the corpses because they thought they were still alive. Cassian had unknowingly been dubbed the "The Tranquil Death" as tales of almost surreal scene had found its way throughout the UNSC.

Cassian finished off the last of the insurrectionists with a quick draw of his knife across the man's throat, he let the body fall unceremoniously into the snow and began to scour the base for any relevant information.

_"__I don't think I'll ever experience something like that again, I know why they classify you as hyper lethal vector."_ That was the first positive things Kara had said about him since they met, it wasn't much but he'd take it and with Kara it seems like that's the highest compliment she'd give.

"Flattery? I don't know if I'm ready for such talk in our relationship." Cassian deadpanned

_"__Oh? The stoic spartan makes a joke? Or at least as much of a joke as you can manage."_

"Sorry I forgot to uninstall my humor setting." Raising his hand to the side of his helmet, he radioed in while continuing his search.

"Pharoah-2 this is Pharoah-1, copy?"

"I hear you loud and clear, is the outpost clear?"

"Affirmative, there should be an area in front of the outpost that's wide enough for the pelican to land."

"Got it big guy, I'll be there in ten minutes."

While searching the outpost, Cassian stumbled across what was presumably some sort of Captain's quarters, it had piles of papers, documents, and a terminal located by the bed. He was never as good as Kat was with technology, but that didn't matter now because he wouldn't have to do any of it. Popping Kara's chip out of the back of his helmet, he slid it in the terminal, while he waited, he searched the room for other valuable information. There was nothing of value he could find, until a glint from under the bed caught his eye, he crouched down and reached under the bed until he felt a familiar shape in his hand. Pulling it out only confirmed what he already knew, it was a plasma pistol, in poor shape but functioning, nonetheless. He flipped it around to examine it but saw noted nothing unusual, he tossed it on the ground and stomped it underneath his boot. Walking back to the terminal, he pulled the chip out and replaced it back in his helmet.

"Did we find what we need?"

_"__Not specifics, but we never thought we would. We can trace these emails and vague situational clues to lead us to his location, it appears to be an abandoned quarry in an unremarkable mountain range to the Southwest. Its location makes it difficult to access however, most of the mountain is uninhabitable, far too unstable and rocky, so only a small number of troops can be offloaded at one time, which presents obvious problems." _Cassian hummed in agreement but was broken out of his reverie the sound of a pelican touching down outside. Walking outside he saw the pelican not far off, hoping into the back he walked through the seating and into the cockpit next to Yokovich. He nodded to the pilot and they began their return to the Return to Sender, he grabbed the radio in the pelican for secure communication.

"Pharaoh Actual this is Pharoah-1, copy?"

"I hear you Pharoah-1, did you get what we need?"

"Yes sir, Kara has the data stored, but we'll need to rework our original plan."

"I see, we'll discuss the plan upon your return."

"Understood sir, Pharoah-1 out."

* * *

**UNSC Return to Sender, Command Deck**

**18:11**

"Our original plan simply won't work sir, the Hrangel Mountains have no clear spot for large troop deployment. Our options would either be to work our way from the bottom of the mountain, or to unload small groupings of marines repeatedly at a spot closer to the compound. Both have the same problem of time; they'd simply take far too long for it to be a viable option." Cassian pointed towards the two spots on the holographic map, the mountain range not being massive but staggeringly steep. A red outlined object deep within the holographic mountains representing Hasagawa's compound.

Admiral Montinaro squinted a bit at the map and sighed, rubbing his forehead. "And what do you propose Lieutenant? I'm sure you'd love to volunteer to do it by yourself, and I'm sure you could do it by yourself, but we're not taking chances with him. We need at least some sort of secondary defense to prevent him escaping."

Cassian nodded in agreement, "I'd recommend a much smaller but highly skilled group to drop off at this location." He zoomed in and highlighted a ledge not far from the compound. "We have bullfrogs aboard; we utilize their jetpack experience and have them hop from this area and make their way to the back of the compound. I can get in undetected, and get a vantage point for a clean shot, once I take it, they can come in through a forgotten mining tunnel underneath the compound." A red line appeared on the map, showing the bullfrogs path going under the compound and up into the center of it. "I'd like to recommend Staff Sergeant McCarthy; I have previous experience with him back in New Alexandria."

The admiral moved around the table, quietly mumbling to himself about certain aspects, and moving the holographic map. He stood up and swiped the map off the holographic table, "Alright Lieutenant, we'll go with your plan. The ODST's you want aren't technically under my command, but I shouldn't have any problems transferring temporary command and I'm sure they're getting cramped in this ship anyway. We don't want to let this moment slip so as soon as I get authorization, you're heading out to deal with Hasagawa."

Cassian snapped a crisp salute, "Understood Sir."


	4. It Shouldn't Be This Easy, But It Is

**Hrangel Mountain Range, Harkovo Province, Tridian Vale**

**20:05**

The pelican shook as quickly descended through the atmosphere of Tridian Vale; the sound of metal creaking reverberated throughout the ship.

"I sure as hell don't like goin' down in drop pods, but this doesn't feel any fucking safer."

Cassian turned his head towards the voice that spoke up, sitting in the chairs were a squad of ODST's under the command of SSGT McCarthy, they'd be the ones coming in through the mining shafts underneath the facility. The more bodies on a mission, the more chances for it to go wrong, if everything went smoothly, he should be able to take out Hasagawa before they enter the facility. It was nothing personal against the ODSTs, they were the elite and he had no worries that they'd move like shadows, but all it takes is one guard to linger an extra second where he shouldn't and the whole plan can go down in flames. It why he worked better alone, he can account for his own actions and work around that, he can't account for the actions of others.

"You know what Grimlock, you could win a million bucks and still find something to bitch about." Another ODST spoke up from the opposite side of the pelican.

"At least you two don't have to worry about this pelican taking a turn too tight and getting crushed but lug nut over here." The ODST nodded her head towards Cassian.

"Alright all shut yer traps and listen up." The Staff Sergeants voice came out gruff and tired, he stood next to Cassian by the pelican doors, "This mission is straightforward and relatively simple, but it can also be fucked up at the drop of a pin. By the time we're through the tunnels, the Lieutenant here should be close to getting in position. We're clear to pop innies as we see them, but until the Lieutenant takes his shot and Hasagawa is dead, we're not to make our presence known, is that clear? Once shit hits the fan we're going to clear out the base, command wants it captured intact to scavenge intel and see what else the innies were planning. Check your gear one last time and prepare to land."

Cassian nodded at the Staff Sergeant before making his way to the cockpit, standing next to Yokovich he stared out across the great expanse of ragged mountains, their peaks tearing through the clouds like knife.

Yokovich turned to him, "I've picked up some weird signals on the radar, minor blips, seemingly nothing so far since nothing's happened, but keep an eye out. Something feels off." As if to punctuate this point, a large burst appeared in front of the pelican, rocking it to its core.

The young pilot swore, quickly yanking the steering to the side and diving, "Fuck how did they know we'd be here?"

"It doesn't matter, change of plans, drop us all up at Bravo site, we'll make our way from there." Cassian remained impassive. More bursts of anti-air burst in the air, the flak shrapnel bouncing off the reinforced glass, the war with the covenant had sparked massive technologic innovations and boosts, it would take more than flak cannons to take down any UNSC transport. The thought was short lived however as a series of rockets flared up in front of them, the pelican's tracking claxons blared as they got closer. To Yokovich's credit, he managed to evade most of them, but there's only so much one can do before its simply overwhelming. The rocket blasted into the pelicans left wing, sending it into a dizzying spin, the ground was approaching fast and it was clear that it was going to be a hard landing. Cassian locked his armor and braced for the inevitable impact. When the pelican's nose hit the snowy mountain peak everything became a blur, it seemed to whip in every direction and roll for what seemed an eternity. Eventually it come to a stop, the metal groaning and crying out from the immense stress it just been subjected to. Cassian unlocked his armor and opened his eyes, he immediately saw the floor above him and struggled to get up, his body aching in protest.

_"__Your vitals are fine, but I'll ask to seem caring. How are you?" _Kara voiced, sounding relieved, but based on their talk from earlier, probably more for her own safety than his. Though at this point there practically one and the same.

"My vitals say I'm fine, but that doesn't change that fact that I'm in-" He hissed when he popped his thumb back into place with a sickening pop, "A lot of fucking pain right now." He pushed himself up and turned to look at the pilot, the man was stuck in his chair, the seatbelt keeping him strapped upside down, but what caught his eye was the thick stream of blood pooling out from him and onto a growing stain on the floor. The darkness of the blood, the consistency, the flow and volume, it was obvious…

_"__He's not going to make it if he hasn't died already."_

"I know…" Not even a full mission through and he's already losing more. He was far from religious but as a spartan that should be hardly surprisingly, he'd never prayed, but at this moment, despite what he said in the future, he did the closest thing he's ever done to praying, he hoped that the others were alive. He gingerly stepped over the threshold into the troop bay, seeing two ODST's cut another one down from a seat, it seemed he was heavier than they expected as the man fell from the seat through their arms and straight to the floor with a hefty thud, there was a long string of curses followed by a series of laughter.

"Staff Sergeant, any injuries?"

McCarthy turned to face the Spartan, "Other than some bruises we're all fine, where's the pilot?"

Cassian shook his head, "Won't make it, but I was hoping one of your ODST's could check his pulse and administer morphine, my gloves don't allow for much sensitivity." He brought up hand to emphasize the point.

McCarthy gave a solemn nodded before craning his head, "Barracuda, check the pilot, administer morphine if he needs it. Let him pass peacefully." A shorter but lanky ODST passed by, a series of cobalt blue streaks adorned his helmet with a single thin line passing down over his left shoulder pad. The SSGT turned back to face him, "So what's the plan now Lieutenant?"

"Not too different from the original plan, except we'll move as a single unit. When we get close to the facility I'll break off and see if I can still get a clear shot on Hasagawa, if not then I'll head into the facility and get you access from the inside."

_"__I'd recommend bring heavy explosives with you as well, the building was originally quite sturdy and with the new fortifications the insurrectionists have brought, I'd expect heavy barricades. I'll only be able to get you through electronic locks, anything else and you'll have to brute force it."_

Cassian nodded before speaking up again, "I'd also ask if you brought any heavy ordinance, they know were here and we've no clue how fortified they are. If I'm to get you guys in, I'll probably need explosives."

The SSGT mulled it over, "Dreadwolf, what's our heavy ammo look like?"

"Uh not great, lot of it got thrown out on the landing. We've got some a couple pounds cytrex, Antilion AP mines, and whatever grenades the teams got." The ODST's name named fitting, her helmet had a white stylized wolf skull painted onto it, with the visor appearing in-between the jaw of the skull.

"Alright, when we split, you're going to follow the Lieutenant. You're our demolitions expert, I expect you to stretch out what we have and make it last." Ignoring her grumblings about being stuck with the iron giant, McCarthy turned towards Cassian, "I know how you Spartans are, but she's the best damn demoman I've ever seen, she'll make sure you get through whatever needs destroyin'." Cassian decided not to argue, he may have rank but its not the time, besides the SSGT knew he squad, if he was recommending one of his soldiers, then he'd best accept the help. He walked past the ODSTs and out onto the mountaintop, unlike his previous excursion, the weather was much clearer, it also helped that they were practically above the clouds at this point. He turned and stared out onto the horizon, the clouds rolling out like a white foamy sea with no end in sight.

_"__I seem to have a…memory…of something like this." _Her accented tone rang in his brain.

"Memories? I thought you were recent?"

_"__Its not wise you mention a women's age, and I am. But smart A.I are cloned from a living person's memories. This is technically classified but they'll never know, unless you deiced to break your warrior's honor, which would be a great shame for both of us. Continuing, my 'memories' are those of the person I was scanned from, I don't have the entirety of their mind within mind, but occasionally I see; snippets of their life, such as now, similarly to what you humans call 'déjà vu'."_

Cassian hummed in thought, it was interesting, ONI had never given him much information regarding anything, but that's to be expected. Pushing the thought out of his head he turned back towards the crashed pelican, the others were just about to head out to continue the mission. He volunteered to take point, always staying a bit ahead, clearing the surrounding area with his SRS. The insurrectionists had known that they'd be coming, it shouldn't have been possible and yet here they were. Something unusual was happening, perhaps Hasagawa had planned this all along, to try to lure the UNSC into a trap, it was a rather foolish notion, but Hasagawa was seemingly not one to be underestimated. The next several minutes passed in relative ease, Cassian had stayed on point and had yet to see any unusual activity, it wasn't long until they were in sight of the facility. They were crouched behind a large boulder, tucked in next to the edge of a mountain wall, the ODST's resident sharpshooter, Jeger, was keeping watch and noting enemy numbers. Jeger was the shortest of the squad and seemingly a bit on the lighter side, his armor was entirely black save for an intricate weaving of red stylizations upon his right arm, from his gloves to his shoulder pad was completely covered in the detailed designs.

"Here is where we'll split for now." Cassian spoke up, he pointed towards an incline in the cliff face not far from them, "This is the path we'll take, at the top of the incline is a flat path that leads to an overlook of the facility. From there I should have a clear line of sight on the target, whether I do or don't doesn't change how the mission happens." Everyone nodded, despite their differences and the tensions between Spartans and ODSTs, a mission changed everything, they'd probably go back to hostility after the mission, but right now, he'd be hard pressed to find someone he'd trust more to watch his backs than ODSTs. Crouched, he slowly walked towards the incline, motioning for Dreadwolf to follow. He started the slow climb up when they reached the base of the incline, it'd be a long process, but they were already on thin ice with whatever the insurrectionists were planning and going any faster risked the chance of discovery.

"Oh boy rock climbing, this sure brings me back to my high school days." The static of his comms filled his head at her sarcastic comment. He stayed silent and continued the climb, he thought that would be the end, but it was never that easy. "I've never seen a Spartan before, is it true you can rip an elite in two with your bare hands? And that under your amor you're not even human, but some sort of freak alien that the UNSC picked up?"

"…"

"Man, they might as well call Spartans, silent but deadly, because you're fucking killing me here tin-can." He simply sighed and was glad that he could see the top of the incline, he'd never connected with Jun as he had with the others of noble, and now with her it seemed to support his idea, he just hated conversation.

"I have an actual question now, what's the importance of our target?" A few moments passed in silence and she almost thought she wasn't going to get a response.

"Do you actually want to know?" He was almost already regretting opening his mouth, but Holland had always been transparent with their objectives and that's something he'd respected about the colonel. ONI was usually just point and do, which he did without complaint, but it was nice to have the added information. Thinking of which, he never heard from Holland, probably assumed he was dead on Reach with the rest of Noble but that will probably change soon, he should expect orders from him soon. Regardless, for a plan already halfway shot to hell, they deserved to know.

"Holy shit the golem speaks, but I am interested. We're rarely ever told why, figured I might as well try my luck."

Cassian hauled himself over the edge of the incline, and scoped out the immediate area, nothing so far. He turned and helped pull up Dreadwolf, effortlessly yanking her up the top, they continued slowly to the overlook, "Julo Hagasawa, our target, is a known leader of the insurrectionists. Tridian Vale isn't particularly valuable in any strategic sense, but it is a ship building planet, and this late into the war we can't afford to lose anything else. The main caution with Hasagawa is his charm, he's reportedly very charismatic and has the potential to gain a significant following." Dreadwolf hummed in the affirmative, but surprisingly said nothing more, not that it mattered for they had arrived at the overlook. Providing a clear view of the facility, it quite expansive but mostly filled with empty space. The point of interest was a four-story building far left of the complex, the fourth floor was walled almost entirely of glass.

He laid flat, flipping the bipod out on his SRS and nestled the stock firmly into his shoulder. Staring down the scope he scanned the fourth floor, there appeared to be several men in a meeting of sorts, a heated argument apparently taking place, Cassian moved the crosshairs of the cope over the man at the head of the table.

"Kara, confirm and spot."

"Oh great, now he's schizophrenic and talking to himself, wonderful." Dreadwolf muttered from behind him.

_"__Target confirmed, Julo Hasagawa._ _The wind is coming in at eight miles per hour from the southwest, adjust ten centimeters to the right. Target is 257 meters, based on the elevation difference, raise 6 centimeters. Take the shot."_

He waited not, his finger pulled back on the trigger of the SRS and he felt the shock of the anti-material rifle. The resounding crack echoed throughout the mountains. The bullet went cleanly through the glass, but not cleanly through Hasagawa. The man's head popping like a crushed strawberry, the window splattered in a dark crimson specked with bits of an ugly grey. Almost immediately the base went on alarm, blaring for all to here.

_"__For shooting us down early, the security was surprisingly lax. They were either arrogant with some secretive information, or there's something else going on here."_ Cassian couldn't help but agree, but for now they had other problems, and Dreadwolf summed it better than he ever could have.

"Well shit, now they're pissed."


	5. Who Left The Heating On?

**Hrangel Mountain Range, Harkovo Province, Tridian Vale**

**21:13**

The UNSC arsenal had evolved to fight against the covenant, everything that could be done to make armor and weapons tougher and deadlier had been done, so when those weapons were used on lightly armored insurrectionists, it made quite the impact. Literally. Cassian fired off a quick succession of shots from his M6G at a group of insurrectionists. Their heads popping like balloons, the M6 sidearm for Spartans replaced the typical FMJ-AP ammo with High Explosive rounds, useful against unshielded covenant, devastating against humans. Next to him, Dreadwolf left off a burst from her MA37 assault rifle, dropping another insurrectionist that had rounded the corner. It seemed that they'd been caught entirely off guard, which as Dreadwolf had mentioned, was unusual regarding the circumstances but he chalked it up to over-confidence, but at the same time, made their job much easier. Not only were most of their targets in a state of shock and easily put down but killing Hasagawa had left them without their main leader, for a group of ragtag rebels, they had lost basically any sort of command structure. They met minimal resistance on their way to the main gate, any that tried to come between then met a brief and painless end.

Dreadwolf kneeled by the door, "Alright this is the main gate, seems like the powers been cut, probably because of the alarm. We'll be using the rest of the cytrex, but it should blow the door open." Cassian nodded in response and took a knee behind her, keeping an eye out for hostiles and for any insurrectionists that get a stray shot off. His shields would last, but one unlucky angle and it could down the ODST. It was quiet, after they'd reached the door there hadn't been any sign of hostiles or even a blip on his radar.

_"__It seems someone took command, they're either waiting on the defensive or are planning to rush at once. I wager the latter, for now you're separated from the rest of the squad and you're backed into a corner. I'd prepare for an assault."_

Cassian silently agreed and mulled over his plans. "You still have those AP mines?"

Dreadwolf didn't turn to face him, "The antilions? Yeah, they're in pack next to me, only got about four or so left, us them wisely."

He set to work setting up a perimeter, the actions coming back to him naturally, his time acting against insurrectionists and militias made it like second nature. You couldn't act like you would against the covenant, while obviously the species are different, there's key aspects that separate the two in tactics. The Covenant are stronger yes, they're technology is superior and so when going up against the covenant all you need to focus on is killing them and wearing down their shields and armor, but humans…they're a different prey all together. Our armor is weaker, and only Spartans so-far have shields, so when placing the antlion mines, you don't have to aim to kill, only to wound because you don't have to break through advanced shields or armor. So, one can place the mines further apart, maximizing casualties. Covenant also don't care about their dead, the Sangheili are honor bound warriors. Sure they care for their comrades and don't want them to die, but its seen as a disgrace if a wounded soldier is cared for medically on the battlefield, they either survive the wound and were strong enough to live, or they weren't and died heroically on the field of battle, but humans, they're sentimental creatures. Your friend goes down next to you and you're no longer focusing on taking the enemy, but trying to get him out of fire, admirable but for this instance ultimately foolish.

However, there's one major aspect that's in favor of the humans, our tactics and strategies. Humanity loves a good underdog story, you rarely hear the stories of when a powerful army crush a weaker one, but you'll never forget the stories of the armies that came from nothing and won. Sure, humans have _some_ honor, but not like the Sangheili, we'll play dirty to win and we'll do it over and over again. Adversity breeds change, it breeds progress, it breeds desperation, the Covenant have never had to face this before, they've never had to struggle to beat someone tougher than them, if they have, they've forgotten it. Their tactics haven't changed over the course of the war, they're simple and predictable, they only win because of their overwhelming firepower, but let's not kid ourselves here, it doesn't change anything. Still, its why the Covenant try to avoid ground wars, they might actually lose, and they have before, all because we think outside the box, we've adapted and changed. This rambling has all been to lead back to why the insurrectionists while weak, should never be thought of as less anything but a dangerous opponent, they're human, and they'll adapt.

Cassian had been so accustomed to fighting the covenant, that while the motions of planning for a human attack had become second nature, his thoughts on how the enemy would advance were still stuck on the covenant. Its why, despite everything, he was over-confident in his own reserved and detached self, its why when a blast hit the side of his head and rocked him, he was dazed at what had happened. When an enemy is weaker than you, when you're overconfident in your abilities, when the enemy is fighting for their land and their home, you'll win eventually through sheer force of power, but the enemy make you pay for that victory in blood.

Cassian stared up at a clear blue sky, his thoughts a blur, his suits internal alarms blaring at the loss of shields. He snapped out of it almost immediately and took cover behind the nearest wall, Dreadwolf following suit.

"God damn, that sniper came out of nowhere. I'm just about done with he explosives, but you have to get him off my back and in the ground."

Cassian nodded and he heard another distinct sound of his shields regenerating, "Kara did you see where he came from?"

_"__You're an absolute fool for almost dying in such a ridiculous manner, but I did. Far right builder, second floor, the third window from the right. He'll have your position zeroed; you can stick your head out again, but I wouldn't recommend that unless you feel like getting a concussion."_

Her point was fair enough, Cassian knew as well as anyone else that shields and armor only protected from penetration, blunt trauma carried through and it was more than possible for a concussive force to knock him out. It didn't change the fact that there weren't many options, he could take the blow but that'd disrupt his aim and allow the sniper another shot…unless.

"How good your aim?" He turned to face Dreadwolf, she gave him a wobble with her hand and replied that she'd passed marksmen training but not with flying colors. "Well it'll have to do, the sniper is in the far right builder, second floor, the third window from the right, about 132 meters. I can't take the shot because he'll have our positioned zeroed. But if you take the shot from behind me, he'll either take the shot on me or refocus on you, either way it'll give you enough time to fire a shot."

"Alright with me." She shrugged and Cassian handed her his SRS, she shrugged and weighed it in her hands before adjusting the aim. "Gotta ask though, you got a death wish? I don't care much for you walking refrigerators any more than anyone else, but it'd be a pretty pathetic way for a UNSC to die."

"Don't worry about it, I'll live. Alright on three we'll take the shot." They inched towards the corner of the wall and crouched low. Cassian held up his hand and begun putting up finger after finger, one three they both stepped out crouch low. Cassian in front with Dreadwolf crouching behind him, the sniper rifle barrel passing over his left shoulder. The enemy fired first, but it seemed he was confused at the sight, the bullet went high and to the left, skimming off Cassian's right shoulder pad. Dreadwolf didn't hesitate, she fired and seemed to have been successful when there wasn't a retaliation shot.

"I don't think it was a clean kill, but I definitely got the side of his neck. If he's still alive he'll bewishing he wasn't." Dreadwolf said and handed the SRS back to Cassian, she jogged back to the door and finished up while Cassian kept watch. He had agreed with Kara that they'd probably come in force, but it seemed like that wasn't happening, it'd been far too long to see no movement. While earlier he'd mentioned human strategy and tactics, it was a double sided coin, for all the intelligence and strategy of man, there was also an unending sea of stupid and reckless action, this could very well be an example of that. Dreadwolf walked up behind him, knocking on his armored shoulder.

"Explosives are rigged to blow, I've told the Staff Sergeant, they'll be ready when the doors go." Not long after Dreadwolf pressed the detonator, it wasn't a glorious explosion like one might see in a movie, it was dirty, loud, and just barely did the job, she wasn't lying when she said that we didn't have much. Through the smoke came the squad of ODSTs lead by the SSGT, they'd came through expecting a fight but instead came into to see an empty courtyard and no bodies.

"Where the fucks the action?" One from the squad called out from the back.

"Well he's crass but he ain't wrong. I was expecting more fightin when we got through, but this seems… ah…rather empty." Cassian replied with a shrug. "Well they might yet be holed up, we'll go as group, Lieutenant you take point, Queen watch our backs."

Progress slow through the facility, they'd had to check every room and corridor they passed as they made it into the heart where Hasagawa died. A lack of enemies aside from the sniper put everyone one edge, the whole place could be bobby trapped and they wouldn't know it, or they could get surrounded and despite advances in fighting the covenant, the ODST armor wouldn't stand up to a barrage of bullets from all directions.

_"__I know its obvious, but I don't like this."_

"Neither do I, if its not a trap, then they already left." He whispered to Kara, he was a few meters ahead from the main squad, but it looked like this would be an example in favor of human tactics. They'd realized that they couldn't stand to a special forces squad and bugged out, but there's no telling if they left traps to try to take any of us down as we explored. He voiced this to the SSGT as they reached the room that was having the meeting when Cassian had so rudely interrupted. Hasagawa's body was still there, unceremoniously slumped in his chair, over half of his face gone and the rest painting the window and wall. While there were still smaller buildings that hadn't been checked yet, it was clear that the insurrectionists had left, thinking on it the sniper had probably been used to buy time, however short that would be.

"Alright, every split off into pairs and search this entire god damned facility. If I find that you skipped a single inch I swear to the mother o Jesus of fucking Christ that you will scrub the entire inch of the frigate with a toothbrush made from your own fucking hair. Am I clear?" A resounding 'yessir' before all paired off save for the SSGT and Cassian, he turned back once more to his leaving squad, "And I hope this won't come as a shock to anyone because I hope your all halfway competent, but check for fuckin' traps, I don't want none of y'all idiots dying because you couldn't be bothered to look down." Cassian had already started searching the corpse of Hasagwa for any vital information while Kara was in the mainframe, searching for any relevant info. Hasagwa had been taken care of and hopefully they'd relevant information, which technically is what their mission objectives were, but its slightly dampened when those success are immediately followed by, 'And most of the insurrectionists got away', leaderless or not they're still a threat.

The Staff Sergeant turned to face him, "Well fuck, command ain't gonna be happy about this."


	6. A Strange Sense of Deja Vu

**UNSC Return to Sender, Crew Quarters**

**23:41**

Cassian had felt as if he was a dead man walking, it was clear that his body hadn't fully recovered, and it wasn't surprising considering his injuries. His body ached to the bone, his arms felt like sludge and his movements were sluggish, it didn't help that Admiral Montinaro had debriefed them for the last two hours, it was long and exhaustive, detailed down to the last second. It was commendable to have a leader take such an interest in the missions, but after a mission such as this it felt more like torture. As expected, their 'failure' had raised several questions, while they had completed their official objective, being an elite squad set certain expectations for what would be done. Dealing with insurrectionists this late into the war, it was expected that they'd be dealt with, anything other than apprehension or death didn't reflect well. These sorts of meetings were rare for him, Carter had done most of the talking and details with Holland, and ONI ever told him what needed to be done, nothing more.

Now here he was half-stumbling through the crew quarters, something completely foreign to him. With ONI he was usually put on ice when he wasn't needed, and if the time between missions wasn't long, he'd practice his skills. With Noble they'd rest where they could, otherwise they'd had their own squad rooming, it reminded him of bootcamp, but now he was in a limbo of sorts, alone once again but not technically under ONI jurisdiction. They'd struggled to find any accommodation, and in the end, he'd been granted an officer's room, nothing special but it was private…it was…a new experience for him. He wasn't sure how to process it, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't enjoy the privacy.

Walking into his designated room it was exactly as he expected but still more than he'd ever gotten before. A bare room with a single bed on the right side, a small desk and dresser tucked into the left corner, he barely paid it any mind as he walked over to the bed and slowly sat down on the edge, but his caution was in vain as it immediately cracked and splintered as his weight was put on it. He sighed, he never expected anything different but figured it was worth the try, he moved to sitting on the floor between the bed and desk, resting the back of his head against the wall, his helmet and wall causing a resounding clanging sound as metal met metal.

_"__Maybe you should lose a little weight, eh?" _Kara quipped, a husky chuckle following at her own joke.

Cassian gave a smirk, "I don't think ONI would allow me to lose weight even if I wanted to." He let out a drawn-out yawn, "Not like it matters much though, luxuries aren't made for us." Cassian closed his eyes and passed out almost immediately.

He found himself in an everlasting expanse, he felt as if he was supposed to do something, had to, but couldn't. His body felt like it was pulling him in every direction, his mind screaming at him to stop it from happening, but he felt powerless. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to stop, what his body wanted him to do, he felt dissociated from his body, he was mentally there but he had no control over his actions. This feeling of utter hopelessness, it was familiar, it seemed to be a constant in his dreams that permeated into his life. Soon he began to feel a growing warmth, but not a soft warmth that brings joy, but…an unnatural warmth, one that feels like its boiling you alive from the inside, that feels like it's changing your entire body. The vast sea of nothing before him began to turn to a sister red, dark not like blood, but almost as if fury, hatred, and disgust manifested into this specific hue, it was almost sickening. The heat keeps growing, his body felt like it was boiling, he looked down at himself and it was is he was melting, his body losing its cohesion and simply…falling apart. The red swathe becomes darker as his body seems to gurgle in the heat, eventually it turns to black and all at once the feelings seem to fade.

His eyes crack, the blackness that came in his dream fades as the light of his room fills his vision, another day another nightmare. Cassian sighs and takes off his helmet, rolling his neck he's rewarded with a series of pops and cracks. His stomach growls and he's reminded he hasn't had a full meal in days, reequipping his helmet he walks out the door towards the mess hall, his H.U.D tells him it's still early in the morning, a silver lining in the nightmares is he tends to be awake before everyone else, lets him eat in peace.

_"__I've been analyzing the data we secured from that insurrectionist base, and there's something peculiar with it." _Cassian's interest was piqued, he'd never been much for details but when an A.I found something odd, well that interested even the most meat-headed fools.

"Peculiar how? Is it related to our early detection?"

_"__I'm unsure as of yet, there was a surprising amount of data and it'll take time, but Hasagawa had several correspondences with one address, more than any other. There's not one thing in particular, but more like…a series of small oddities. The tone, speech, grammar… even the signature of this other person is all…off. It's almost too clean and there's something peculiar about the signal itself, I'll alert you with updates as I come across them."_ With that Kara cut off and left Cassian once more in silence as he entered the mess hall.

It was as practically empty save for a few workers coming off a nightshift. He heard their whispers as he passed, he ignored them and got a large serving of food. He chose a bench in the far back of the mess hall and sat in the corner seat, away from the prying eyes and wild imaginations of the crew. He thought about Kara's words, if there was someone pulling strings in the insurrectionist movement it would explain a lot, but it'd be disastrous for the UNSC. Even before the Covenant, the biggest fault of the Insurrectionists was their lack of cohesion. They had a common enemy of course -the UNSC- but a rebellion is far more complicated now than it was even a century ago, supplies, logistics, tactics, travel, all takes place on a massive interplanetary scale.

In his opinion, the greatest feat of the UNSC other than the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine, was the ability to form a cohesive administration following the Interplanetary Wars, of course the insurrectionists would disagree, but that's beside the point. If the insurrectionists were given better direction, if this unknown influence leads to a total unification of their forces, then there's a good chance they'd win. The UNSC is already losing to the Covenant, and there were talks early in the war, when victory wasn't such an elusive target, that it'd be better to simply give the insurrectionists their freedom and focus solely on the Covenant, but if the insurrectionists made a resurgence, they'd probably get their freedom, though it's doubtful it'd last long. Covenant and all. He snorted to himself and finished his plate, donning his helmet, he got up and began to leave the mess hall. As he was leaving, he noticed that Staff Sergeant McCarthy and his squad were entering, he exchanged nods with the sergeant as McCarthy walked up to him.

"Lieutenant I-" He was abruptly cut off by Cassian as the Spartan seemed to tilt his head to the side a bit and lightly held up his hand.

_"__It's the insurrectionists, they're planning a terror bombing in the capital."_

"Shit." Cassian muttered under his breath and dashed passed the SSGT and the other ODSTs.

"Fucking freaks amiright. Probably drinking his daily dose of motor oil." One of the ODSTs quipped as the others roared with laughter in agreement.

Cassian continued to sprint at full speed through the ship, narrowing avoiding splattering several technicians. "Do we know what they're plan is?"

_"__Vaguely, they're not complete fools. The messages never gave full details, only briefly talking about location and time. These insurrectionists pose a bigger threat than others right now, they're clever, the anomalies in the message I told you about? It's an old way of hiding codes in writing, practically ancient by our standards, for someone to know this, they'd have to be dedicated and knowledgeable. Hasagawa may have been the charismatic front, but it's clear that he chooses the right supporters, they're coordinated, intuitive, and adaptable." _Cassian's legs pounded away, he was only a minute out from the Command Deck,_ "From what I could gleam from the data, they're planning to set off a series of bombs outside and possibly inside the UNSC Embassy in Viarosa at seventeen hundred. It'll be the optimal time to amass casualties as many civilians get out of work at that, and with the Embassy being in the most active district, the number could range in the hundreds."_

By the time Cassian arrived on the bridge, it seemed the Admiral was already waiting for him, not too surprising considering he wasn't even trying to be subtle.

"What is it Lieutenant?"

"Sir, it's the insurrectionists and they're looking for blood."

* * *

**Planetary Capital Viarosa, Viarosa Providence, Tridian Vale **

**16:47 - 13 Minutes Still Suspected Bombing**

"Pharaoh-3 this is Pharaoh-1, possible target Southeast of the Embassy near the café. Male of average height and build in a dark overcoat with hat covering features. Confirm visual on target, over." Cassian stared down the scope, having a possible target in his sights.

"Copy Pharaoh-1, have visual of the target, waiting for further action. Out."

Cassian's helmet once again returning to silence, he readjusted his body and continued to look for possible targets. After bringing the news to the admiral, a plan was almost immediately drawn up. A series of undercover agents would be deployed into the city center scanning for targets and eyeing suspicious activity, if the worst happened, they would be able to deploy onsite support. Cassian, for obvious reasons, was assuming the role of sniper support with three other sniper groups, providing overwatch and identifying targets. Each sniper unit was deployed on four skyscrapers surrounding the plaza giving a clear view from all vantage points, they're orders were not to engage unless absolutely necessary. The Admiral has hoped to avoid wide-spread civilian knowledge of the insurrectionists as well as avoid a public scene if it seemed that several innocents were seemingly gunned down at the busiest time in the city. For that reason, his main purpose was to target and identify, if the undercover agents couldn't reach the bombers in time then they had clearance to take the shot.

"Pharaoh-1 this is Pharaoh-3, advised target is cleared. He left the area with another civvie, seemed he was just deathly pale. Over."

"Confirmed Pharaoh-3."

Cassian scanned the crowds, soon the city center would pack even more, but it was unlikely that the insurrectionists would wait till the last minute, they'd most likely already be here or nearby scoping out the area. A large fountain occupied the city center, the centerpiece was a rather detailed sculpture depicting a trio of wolves howling, the water pouring out of their opened mouths and between their vicious teeth. Children ran around the fountain and tossed coins into it, wishing for…for…it reminded him of when he'd wander the streets of Thalios when he was still an orphan. Waiting till dark to go to the local fountains and scavenge for whatever coins he could get, as a child he'd scoff at the fools who would so careless with simply tossing away money. To a boy that'd had nothing however, deep down he was thankful for he'd often get more money from the fountain than he would get from begging in the streets. That people were more willing to toss money into a fountain for an empty wish then to give to a starving child had never made sense to him, and now here he was, protecting those very same fools. Cassian focused himself once again on his task, scanning around the fountain before he noticed someone sitting on the rim, constantly checking their watch and looking around, a backpack that seemed far too large for one person.

"Pharaoh-2 this is Pharaoh-1, possible target sitting on the Northern edge of the fountain, young female, wearing a light blue shirt and dark shorts. Target is displaying suspicious behavior. Do you acknowledge?"

"Say again Parhaoh-1, I'm having trouble finding the target, only civilian that matches that description is a child."

"Affirmative Pharaoh-2, the child is the identified target. We have no information regarding the possible subjects, and we have previous records of insurrectionists using less than ethical means to achieve their goal. Advised to send in small detachment of the ground team to watch target. Over."

"Fucking…Jesus Christ. We should be out there fighting the Covenant, not fucking picking children as targets, fucking innie scum. Acknowledged Pharaoh-1 I'll alerting Inferno squad to possible subject. Over." He signed off with a heavy sigh.

_"__Using children as tools is quite the low for the insurrectionists. Have you ever taken the life of a child?" _Kara asked bluntly, it was a trait of hers he'd respected from the start, but his mind turned to think of her question. He thought of bootcamp when he was fifteen, during a survival exercise. He'd been jumped by a kid of the opposing team, it happened on instinct and his mind wasn't thinking of how the rocky forest floor, only trying to survive. The instructors didn't even bat an eye, if anything they'd seemed impressed at my skill, it was the first time an adult had given me a look of approval.

"If the mission required it." He briskly replied, he was waiting for Kara to say to correct him, say that wasn't what she asked, but she never pressed.

It was only a few minutes out from seventeen hundred and they'd seemed no closer in preventing the bombing then they had at the start. With the mass of people is was hard enough to scan the crowd and watch for unusual movement and suspicious action, but when the working hour for these people would end, it would only swell and grow and deteriorate the situation even more.

Cassian put his fingers to the side of his helmet, "Pharaoh Actual this is Pharaoh-1, various targets have been identified, but possibilities are too high, will most likely have to resort to sniper team engagement, do you copy?"

A quick burst of static but nothing followed, he tried again.

"Pharaoh Actual this is Pharaoh-1, do you read me? Over."

Another burst of static, something wasn't right, maybe they used jammers? But Kara would've picked that up almost immediately, there was something else at play here.

"This is Pharaoh-1, all units be advised contact to Pharaoh Actual has been lost. Be on edge, something isn't right."

_"__There's a signal, it's fuzzy but I can isolate it. Patching it through now."_

**_"_****_-is—UNSC- Rider Known as Death, the Covenant are here, I repeat the Covenant are in orbit of Tridian Vale. All forces prepare for combat. I repeat, this is the UNSC Rider Kno-"_**

Cassian tuned it out and swore to himself, the Covenant would always manage to find their way here, it wasn't a matter of if but when, and the timing couldn't be worse. He alerted the rest Inferno and Pharaoh squad; they shared a similar sentiment. If once listened closely, they could pick up a faint sound, akin to a blade cutting through air, as it began to grow it became immediately clear. For the people in the plaza, they'd never know what it was until it was too late.

It didn't take long for the others to pick up on it, one of the sniper units exclaimed, "Phantoms incoming! It's the scouting party before the corvettes arrive."

"Tale aim at the phantom turrets; a few well-placed shots should disable them."

There was a small period before the shots when everything would continue as normal for the last, for most of these people it would likely be the last time they had any normalcy. Then the distinct crack of anti-material rifles as the sniper teams let loose on the approaching phantoms as they came into view, weaving and fly between the skyscrapers and high-rises. At this time the crowd of people in the city plaza began to swell and grow, for most the working hour for the day had come to an end, and it meant that the insurrectionists were about to make their move. It didn't matter, the Covenant were here and whatever damage they would inflict would far outweigh what the insurrectionists did. A few of the phantom turrets were disabled, but not enough by the time they got to the city center. In a split second the entire area had devolved into panic, the roaring cries of the people grew like a thunderous avalanche, fear and terror spread like a plague throughout the people. Their cries for help, the screams of pure terror as the phantoms began to fire into the innocent crowd, Cassian and the others kept firing at the turrets, trying to disable as many as possible, it all seemed to be in vein when the phantoms lowered themselves and opened up their troop bays. Squads of covenant poured out of the ships like a horde of rats, they slaughtered and maimed without mercy, brutally cutting a swathe through the mass of people.

"Pharaoh-3 keep working on the phantom turrets to try and buy time for the civilians,

Pharaoh-2 and -4, change your targets to the Covenant, focus on the Majors and Ultras, if we get them the grunts and jackals will fall into disarray."

Cassian sighed, it was Reach all over again, except this time the Covenant hadn't wasted anytime in attacking the cities. He aimed down the sights and capped an elite Major in the head, the body falling limp, he turned to see another elite skewer a civilian through the gut, lifting her up as it let out a beastly roar. Another shot from his SRS and another elite down, hopefully this time they'd be able to save more than they did in New Alexandria.

* * *

**A/N: I tend not to do these, but I apologize for the long delay, university was unsurprisingly hitting a rough patch with everything that's happened and it taken some time to settle back own. Anyway, not sure how I feel about this chapter, went through a few different version and variations, even wrote out an entirely different path that this chapter would take focusing more on the insurrectionists and took a bit of a darker tone, but I didn't feel it meshed that well with Halo and the story in general. But I still have the entire chapter in case I decided to rework into something later. Stay safe everybody!**


	7. The Noble and the Virtuous

**A/N: I apologize for the earlier upload with the corrupted writing. I'll be honest I'm not entirely sure what happened, everything was clear when I uploaded it but oh well, accidents happen. Changed a couple things around that may have been causing the problem and hopefully this one stays clear.**

* * *

_"__The Covenant on Tridian Vale was unexpected, as were almost all the planetary attacks by the Covenant, though its unexpected in that Tridian Vale deviates quite far from the normal path the Covenant had carved throughout the galaxy until that point. Its reflective in the relatively small fleet that attacked, only comprised of a few corvettes and two frigates, indicative of a scouting party and not much more, though that still nothing to be trifled with. The planetary defenses and UNSC ships in orbit barely held them off, though they couldn't hold off a planetary invasion from the smaller ships. They landed quickly and without mercy, while there would be far larger and more decisive battles for both sides, Tridian Vale is often overlooked as being home to some of the grittiest, bloodiest, and most vicious fighting in the entire war on par with Harvest. The relatively low umber of Covenant forces prevented it from being a complete pulverization of the ground forces, and as has been previously noted in other research papers, the greatest advantage for the UNSC was the ingenuity and often guerilla tactics of their ground forces."_

**_\- Excerpt from Historian Martin Brown's Journal Article "The Lesser Known Conflicts of the Covenant War"_**

* * *

**Planetary Capital Viarosa, Viarosa Providence, Tridian Vale **

**17:26 – 26 Minutes Since Covenant Arrival**

Cassian ejected the magazine from his SRS and tossed it into the ever-growing pile of empty mags, slamming in a new clip he returned the never-ending shooting gallery. Since the covenant had arrived it'd been non-stop shooting, most of the civilians had managed to escape around ten minutes back and a heavily armed police force had arrived it long after to help slow the Covenant. It wouldn't be much; reports had been pouring in from all over the city of various attacks, but the concentration here seemed to be the heaviest.

Kara's voice broke his musings, _"Two jackals in the office building directly across from us, third floor first and fourth windows from the right."_

He spied the sniper jackals across from him, he moved the reticle over one on the far right, the jackal not being discriminate with his firing. He focused on the jackal's body and fired, wouldn't be as clean as a headshot but for jackals, it didn't matter much where fifty calibers shot landed, it'd do the job. His shot laned just below the jackal's neck, it stood still, like in a daze, as if it couldn't believe what had just happened, so after it fell forward and out of the third story window landing with a splat on the ground. The other jackal seemed to have noticed his friend go down and took a shot at Cassian, the beam rifle shot grazed the edge of the building a few inches from his head, his head barely flinching. It didn't take long for him in the field to realize that flinching wouldn't do much to save his life, the shot either missed and he lived or he'd get shot in the head and he wouldn't even realize it. Despite all his self-discipline, it seemed that it didn't make a difference as he'd noticed that even if just the slightest bit, he'd always unconsciously flinched just a bit whenever there was a close call.

He swiftly turned to the lone jackal and fired off a quick shot, it didn't hit center mass, but it blew off the jackal's left arm, it wouldn't be sniping and would probably die of blood loss soon. He began searching the rest of the buildings for sharpshooters and snipers, taking shots at whatever marksmen he saw.

"Ah shit, be warned Pharaoh squad, looks like they're getting smart, I just popped a couple grunts coming out of the stairwell." Cassian put his last mag into the SRS, planning to finish off this final magazine before moving to ground, but he wasn't given a chance to even fire off a shot when he heard the metal door of the stairwell burst open. He tossed his SRS to the side and drew the magnum from his hip as he rolled over, an elite minor was rushing towards him with an energy sword, briefly he wondered at the rarity of seeing a minor with an energy sword. He let off a few shots, hoping to stumble the elite but it pressed on, it went stab him, but he batted the hand of the elite away with his magnum; using his free hand he socked in the elite in the chin and gripped it by the collar of its chest-plate. Everything that had happened followed by this familiar scene had sparked a flame in his heart, on Reach he'd felt hopeless and overwhelmed, but here and now, he felt furious. The elite let off a beastly growl in his face, flicks of spit landing on his visor, Cassian snarled, "Stronger than you tried the same thing on Reach, you'll be meeting them in hell real soon." With all his strength, he pulled the elite forward and off the building, the elite's screaming growing quieter by the second.

Cassian quickly stood up and took aim at the covenant in the doorway, it was a trio of grunts that had stayed behind while their leader had gone to kill the demon personally. After watching said leader get thrown off the building, they threw their hands up and began wailing and running in panic. Cassian popped up a series of shots, the first two grunts going down with clean shots the head, but the third had turned and the bullet had ricocheted off the grunt's methane tank. Cassian let off another series of shots into the lone grunt until the methane tank had burst, spattering the doorway with neon blue blood and chunks.

Walking back to pick up his SRS he tried to radio the others, "This is Pharaoh-1, is there anyone is Inferno and Pharaoh squad still left? Over."

"Thank fuck someone's still alive, this is Inferno squad, most of us are holed up in the café directly opposite of the embassy. If there's a silver lining in all of this I guess its that the innies didn't get jack-shit, so that's alright I guess." A tired video rasped out over the comms before a second voice came on.

"I second that, this is Pharaoh-3, the other two didn't make it but they brought down a lot of covenant with them. I'm on the fifth floor of the high-rise I was stationed in to the southwest, I can see the café they're holed up in."

Cassian holstered the rifle to his back and made his way down the stairs of the building armed with his magnum.

"Roger that, Inferno stay there, and I'll rendezvous with you; meanwhile Pharaoh-3 will provide overwatch from his position until I get to the café. Then he'll make his way down and we'll provide support." Two affirmative responses and the comms went silent, inside the office building it was almost entirely silent, most of the sporadic combat and terror couldn't be heard in here. Quickly but quietly he made his way down, taking quick pauses every other floor to check for enemy movement. It was on one of the lower floors when he'd heard something, a light crash and some things being thrown. Cracking open the door from the stairwell to the office hallway, the sounds became just a bit clearer. He inched his way through and creeped down the hallway until he came open doorway with the wooden door completely shattered and the noises coming through clearly.

_"__Its an elite, it sounds like he's searching for something and he's not happy." _Kara chimed in.

He rounded the doorway with his pistol raised, but it didn't prepare him for the elite to only be half a meter away. He fired off a series of shots from his pistol hoping to bring down its shields, but it only enraged him as his shields took the hit and blind fired at Cassian. His own shields taking the plasma damage, he threw the pistol as hard as he could and dazed the elite momentarily, he drew his knife and charged at the elite. He brought the knife down overhead, but the elite stopped the knife with both it's talons, holding Cassian's arms back it let off a disgusting chuckle. They were evenly matched in strength and this struggle would only continue in a stalemate, with all his force Cassian lifted his right foot and let loose a furious stomp the elite's leg. He was rewarded with the sound a slight crack and the elite briefly faltered but it wasn't enough, he did it twice more and on the final stomp he felt the leg give way. The elite's bone burst out of the back of its leg, a jagged and bloody mess as Cassian's foot continued its path and grinded the bone underneath his foot to dust. The elite left out an ear-shattering wail; the strength in its arms failing and the knife plunged deep into the neck of the elite, silencing its pained cries. He drew out his knife and kicked the elite onto his back, flicking the blood from his knife he sheathed it back.

_"__I've never seen something like that before, if I was a true Nordic Valkyrie, I think you'd be graciously welcomed into Valhalla."_

Cassian simply grunted, "Any idea what they were searching…for…" It was then that he'd picked up on a faint sound, heavily muffled but distinct, it was sobbing. He looked around the room for where the civilians would be hiding, there were no supply closets in the office and for a second he almost doubted his hearing until he saw a faint square outline in the wall, a maintenance hatch. As he walked over to it, he could hear hushes and the sobbing stopped, he crouched down and thought of what to say, in the rare instances he'd dealt with civilians, it'd never gone well, not that it came as surprise.

"Ah...erm…the Covenant are dead, I'm with the UNSC." He'd tried a comforting tone, but it just came out as cold and monotone. It was silent before some more hushed whispers and finally the maintenance hatch that blended into the wall began to creak open and a small group of people came out.

"Oh, thank god you came, I wasn't sure if…if that'd alien would find us or if we'd be trapped in there forever." Someone said from the back, Cassian awkwardly nodded and motioned with is head to move.

"Stay behind me, there's still scattered fighting outside and there's no way to know if there's anything left in the building." He scanned the room one more time as they passed by the dead elite he pilfered the plasma rifle from it's corpse and holstered his pistol. A couple murmurings from behind him about the elite, "Christ they're ugly," and he couldn't help but agree with the sentiment. Though it took him a second to remember that most of these people had never seen a covenant before in their life, let alone know that the UNSC is hallway to hell and humanity is on the verge of extinction. People rightfully think of ONI as terrifying, but their propaganda department was constantly overlooked, imagine the power, logistics, and cost of almost entirely convincing near one-thousand colonies that humanity had a chance of winning this war. Granted it's probably much easier now with only a fraction of those colonies still under our control, let alone still existing.

Exiting the office, he held up his hand, "Stop here," He peaked around the corner on the off chance that some Covenant had snuck up on them. He motioned for them to follow, "Let's go". They made their way to the stairwell in a neat group, it said they were on the seventh floor, they still had a way to go. He was focused on clearing corners and checking the doorways as they passed, he didn't notice one of the civilians was trying to talk to him.

"Uhm sorry excuse me, what's the plan?" A whispered voice expressed, he turned to see a young woman, an office worker most likely in her mid-twenties, she didn't look as scared as the others but more inquisitive, large doe eyes stared at him with questions and seeking answers.

"We're going to rendezvous with two other units in a café close to here, they'll watch over you ma'am. After that who knows, they're probably trying to establish communications with the higher-ups and find the nearest base." Cassian noncommittally stated, it's what he would do but it's hard to coordinate so soon after the initial invasion.

She spoke again, this surprised him, most conversations he had were brief, "What about you? Won't you be coming with us?"

"I do what I'm ordered, that usually involves working alone." They cleared another floor but he stopped a waited, they'd spaced out a bit too much. She fell silent and seemed to be deep in thought as Cassian checked over his plasma rifle, he never looked it over and if there was a chance it was damaged it'd be useless it a firefight. There's nothing worse than being caught off guard and having a malfunctioning weapon.

"Do you know how to fire it?" Cassian turned and gave the women a blank stare, not that she'd see it through his visor. "Oh, sorry dumb question, why wouldn't you if you picked it up. Guess it makes sense to learn how to use foreign weapons, just seems strange is all." Cassian sighed and looked up to the last people of the group, it was an old man with bad legs, of all his luck. He decided to humor her and continue the conversation, "Most UNSC troops are given a rudimentary firearms training of Covenant weapons, special forces get a more in-depth training."

"So, does that mean your special forces? I've never seen something like your armor before."

Reflexively he straightened up and spoke, "That's confidential ma'am." Time after time again of being asked classified information on the Spartans had become like second nature to him. He relaxed his body when he remembered that it was just a civilian and not some brass.

She grinned, "Well that's basically the same thing as saying, 'Yes, I am.'" She puffed out her chest as she spoke, doing a poor imitation of himself or so he thought, until Kara chimed in and said how she couldn't tell the difference. Though the office worker had a point, there wasn't much one could do to hide that fact. Thankfully the conversation broke off when the old man had caught up, they'd only had two more floors left and they'd almost be in the clear. The final two floors passed in silence for himself as the woman had found conversation with another office worker. When they reached the bottom floor, he motioned for them to stop and radioed Inferno squad.

"Inferno squad this is Pharaoh-1, I'm at the base of the high-rise with a group of civilians in tow. Has there been any enemy movement?" The plaza had seemingly emptied save for the corpses, the fighting had moved elsewhere in the city for now, but that didn't mean it wouldn't wrap back around here, especially once the covenant started putting down operating bases. Small patrols on the far East side with an occasional ghost patrol, but nothing near us for now."

"Roger, how about you Pharaoh-3?"

"Same thing, small patrols but nothing huge. Seems like they can't bring in the heavy artillery yet."

Cassian nodded to himself and ended communications, turning back to the group he laid out the plan. A group of ten people wasn't that large, but it could still attract attention, so they'd split into two groups and he'd do two runs for the civilians. The old man would pose a problem though, he'd slow down whatever group he was in drastically, he could carry him but that would leave him weaponless if the enemy attacked. The old man had sensed what he was thinking and assured him that it was only stairs that posed a problem, he could make a quick pace across flat ground, Cassian doubted it but had no other choice. Before he moved, he stuck his hand out of the door, inching it out further hoping to bait a jackal into firing. Jackals were vicious and ravenous, they had near excellent aim but shot anything that moved. If he was lucky, he could bait them into taking a shot at his arm and reveal their location for Pharaoh-3. When there was not impact he withdrew his arm and prepped the first group. Drawing his magnum in his free hand and his plasma rifle in the other, he began to lead the group, having them walk to the side of him as they moved.

The café was on a short walk from their position and only briefly left them exposed. It was risky and tense, with each step an uncertainty that a patrol wouldn't decide to turn the corner or that a sniper had recently taken position. The wind howled through the barren plaza carrying the sounds of distant fighting, the clothes of the deceased lightly ruffled in the wind. After not much longer they'd reached the café, the inside had been tossed with the tables and chair barricading the windows and the counter had been fortified with junk. He saw Inferno squad first, some of the local swat and police forces positioned behind the counter as well as some regular marines. Strange, he wondered where they had come from. The leader of Inferno squad had walked up to him, noticing his staring, "They're from the embassy, the place was trashed by the Covenant. A few stragglers managed their way here, I'm not one for complaining though. Any help is appreciated at this point." Cassian nodded and she continued, "Almost forget introductions, I'm Sergeant Adrian Bekker. We've managed to secure this place for the most part, storage in the back has a dozen or so civies we managed to rescue as well as any wounded. Our operating force is all we got right here; we'll be able to hold against a few patrols but we just aren't equipped for this. We were supposed to be undercover so our thin armor is practically worthless unless it's a pebble, the heaviest weapon we have is two LMGs that the SWAT brought with them."

"Alright, for now hold position and establish contact with command. I have one more group of civilians left in the building. Once Pharaoh-3 is with us, we can formulate our next course of action." Sergeant Bekker nodded and turned to her men and barked orders, Cassian left the café and sprinted towards the high rise. Entering the bottom floor he gathered the final group and began to walk out, the office worker from before strode up next to him, "I don't think I've ever seen anyone with speed like that, were you in the inter-planetary Olympics?

"I ran track in middle school," Cassian quipped, his eyes darting over the environment, so far it was clear and Pharaoh-3 patched in with regular updates on the environment. They were halfway to the café when the wind had died down, leaving the area in near silence save for the near-soundless woosh of a needle rifle being fired. The Blamite crystal landed in the neck of the old man, he went down without a sound, blood gurgling from his mouth as he wreathed on the ground.

"CONACT!" He yelled into the comms, everyone started sprinting as a hail of gunfire erupted from the café, trying to suppress the sniper. Another shot from the needle rifle and another civilian down, this one was far messier as the Blamite shard pierced the mans face and erupted. Someone screamed as the skin had seemed to erupt and peeling away from the source of impact like skinning an orange. The woman next to him was on the verge of hyperventilating, he holstered his magnum and lightly placed his hand upon her shoulder to guide her, it was a poor attempt at keeping control in the situation but she at least didn't look like she'd passed out anytime soon. They kept sprinting as the needle rifle kept firing, he felt his shields flair as he was pelted with several shots, the first civilian in the front of the line was pulled into the café, the woman next to him and the last office worker weren't far now. They sprinted for a few more seconds reached the café, ducking inside. The last office worker wasn't as lucky, a shard went low and pierced his thigh, he went down was a thud and yell of pain. In a split-second decision, Cassian sprinted back out there, his shields only now starting to regenerate as he took another hail of needle rifle fire. He picked the man up in a bridal carry and put his back to the sniper to cover the wounded civilian, he had almost made it in a miraculous feat of stupidity when he heard the claxon alarm for his shields ring followed by an immediate sensation of pain in his lower abdomen. He dashed into the café and put the man down on a table where a field medic began to immediately work on removing the shard. He looked down towards his side and placed his hand upon his abdomen, luckily it was just a grazing shot and there wouldn't be a risk of shard eruption. He sat down with a thud and rested his back against the café wall, he pulled his hand away from his side, seeing the dark blood covering his palm and watching as the blood trickled down his armor he simply uttered, "Fuck me."


	8. You Shouldn't Leave a Mess

**Planetary Capital Viarosa, Viarosa Providence, Tridian Vale **

**18:03 – One hour since Covenant Arrival**

"_You know, you could try to be a little less reckless. I know you have a death wish, but I'm rather enjoying my newfound life."_ Kara sighed.

Cassian tossed the empty canister of biofoam into the corner of the empty room, letting out a light grunt as the foam begun to sting. He had found a quiet backroom away from prying eyes to clean his wound, the needle he thought that had only grazed him had actually passed a bit deeper into his abdomen than he thought. It passed through cleanly but put a small albeit painful hole in his side, it wouldn't look out of place on the rest of his scarred body. Further insult to injury was in an unfortunate feat of marksmanship that he was hit in one of the fit unarmored areas on his torso.

"Enjoying my company that much? This relationship is moving faster than I thought." She let out an annoyed groan but didn't say anything else. It was comforting to have someone like Kara, a constant companion and someone that he could marginally relax when talking to, much like Noble team. Though he supposed feeling comfortable enough to make the occasionally joke or moment of dry humor wasn't much for most people.

Standing up from his resting position on the ground, he walked back into the main room of the café where the soldiers had set up. The building itself was surprisingly sizeable, there was a windowless second floor where the wounded were being kept and treated, and an open kitchen that served as a temporary dining hall and where the non-wounded civilians were waiting. It was rather old-fashioned in style, in fact most of this area was, Kara had told him that it was commonly referred to as _cidade antiga, _old town, and was aiming for a style reminiscent of the Iberian Peninsula on Earth. He'd never heard of it, but then again he barely knew anything of Earth so he wasn't surprised. The rest of the city was modernized and held vast rises and intricate passages if New Alexandria was anything to go by, for now though, a simpler layout like old town would make evacuating the civilians far easier.

He picked up an MA5B from a stockpile the police had brought, the 60 round capacity was a nice surprise from what he'd used on Reach even if the design was a bit uglier and he'd prefer an M392 DMR, but he'd take whatever he could get. Cassian met up with Sergeant Bekker, technically he held rank, but she'd be the better choice for actually being a relatable authority to give orders. She was focused on the map laid out over the café counter, conferring with some other soldiers.

"Sergeant, what'd command say?"

She looked up and sighed, "Not much, I've only been able to get in touch with a First Lieutenant Bradley, but he's had the same problem getting in-touch with anyone else. You've probably come to the same conclusion we have, a long-range communications jammer, so here's the plan so far. Lieutenant Bradley is here," She pointed to an area a few klicks north of their position, while Cassian thought of the radio jammer, that'd be his next target, allow them to establish communications with command, "It's a little over three klicks, with the size of our group it wouldn't be too bad, but with the injured…It'll take upwards of an hour, maybe even more, and that's assuming we don't run into any resistance."

Cassian nodded, "What about vehicles? Can the Lieutenant spare any?"

She shook her head, "Says he dug in deep, and all their warthogs are being used for defense. If we can hold out till tomorrow, says he'd be able to send out a recon squad to pick us up, but I'd rather not wait that long with all these civilians in such a wide area. I've sent out a couple small squads to scavenge for vehicles, should be hearing back from the soon." Her radio crackled to life, speak of the devil.

"_This is Bravo-2, we managed to find two SUV's and Bravo-1 told us they'd found a van. All the vehicles are in-tact most likely abandoned. Should be more carry all the wounded, over."_

"Roger that, grab the vehicles and return to base."

"_Wilco."_

She breathed a sigh a relief, "Well that clears up a lot, listen I figure you have your own orders, but I could do with some support. Our marines aren't fully kitted out, and the police and SWAT are out of their element. If we run into trouble, you're probably our best bet at survival."

Cassian thought back to the radar jammer, he'd planned for that to be his next move, but the civilians always come first. Regrouping with Bradley's forces would let him resupply and gather more intel on the situation, especially with about the jammer, they may already know where it is.

"You can count on me." She gave a weary smile and turned to answer a solider behind her, Cassian took his leave and started formulating his own plan. He walked over to the marine posted by the door with the sniper rifle and tapped on his shoulder, the man turned to him, his facing becoming one of surprise before he regained control.

"Pharaoh-3?" The man nodded, "Though I guess that doesn't matter much anymore, listen we're going to be moving to the closet FOB soon. When that happens, I want you to take point in the lead vehicle, keep any eye out for movement and alert me to whatever happens." The man nodded and Cassian left him to his overwatch. It wasn't much longer until the scouting parties returned with their vehicles in tow, the wounded were loaded first and mercifully they're numbers were small, the free spaces were filled by the old and young civilians, the weakest that would slow progress, the one or two free spaces were filled by whatever supplies and food they could scavenge, the rest of them walked.

As the group began move away from the café and out of old town, Cassian took the rear guard to watch over the column. The road northward through the ruins of old town should be relatively straightforward with most of the combat being elsewhere in the city, but it still didn't guarantee that a patrol wouldn't stumble into them or that there weren't any snipers in the buildings, at the mention of that Cassian felt his still-healing wound flare up in pain, he grit his teeth and continued on.

"Are you okay? Are you sure you shouldn't be riding in one of the vehicles?" A worried voice turned his thoughts from his own pain, it was the office worker from earlier.

"It's a minor inconvenience, I can still preform my duties."

She turned to look at him, her brown doe eyes no longer held such a curiosity, but now seemed lost, he'd seen that look a thousand times before and he'll see it a thousand times more. He wasn't sure how close she was to the ones that died or were shot out but seeing someone die tends to shake something out of you. He scanned the immediate rooftops and ruins, keep an ear out for any covenant vehicles, and turned to the office woman once more. Sighing he loosened the grip on his assault rifle, he wasn't sure how to go about this, it'd often been remarked that Spartans constantly show a basic lack of humanity. While he'd always point to Jorge as an argument against such a broad generalization, he couldn't argue the same for everyone else on Noble, let alone himself.

"Did…you know any of them?" He spoke unsure, uncharacteristic for him, the woman had seemed just as surprised as he was that he'd spoken to her.

"No not really, I'd known their names, but we never talked much, but…the younger one that died, Johannes. He was dating someone else in the office and it was…just hard to watch. He just stayed in the corner, his face blank like he couldn't what had happened, just kept muttering, "Johannes, Johannes, Johannes." Over and over again, its…" She trailed off, losing her thoughts.

"It's hard to watch." He saw her absent mindedly nod, she'd started falling back into the all-consuming grief. It was different for everyone person, you couldn't just snap your fingers, and everything would be better, but its better to place your focus elsewhere. He'd struggled to think of how to continue the conversation, he was bad enough at hold basic conversation outside of Spartans but this…was far outside his realm. Then it clicked, the most basic courtesy than even Sergeant Bekker had offered him.

"What's your name?" She turned to him, surprised once more, "Or I can just keep calling you 'the office worker'."

She gave a light smile at that, "Victoria Hollen. What about you?"

"Lieutenant Cassian."

"What no first name?"

He drummed his fingers on his assault rifle, hesitating a moment before speaking. His first name he'd always hated, it reminded him of his mother. All Spartan-IIIs were orphans, but how they became orphans differed, he may not know his father, but he'd rather take his last name then use the birth name his mother gave him.

"Its Oliver," He spat, disdain permeating the words, "If I'm not called by my title, I prefer Cassian." Victoria looked to press on, though thankfully she steered the conversation away, even if it was just mindless small talk.

"I know it's a rather weird question with the timing, but have you ever been to Tridian Vale before?" Cassian shook his head and let her continue, "Ah that's a shame. I was born and raised here and while I get that a lot of people yearn to go somewhere else, I love it here. Its beautiful and the weather is always so great. I'd like to travel, but I'd always want to come home here."

Cassian thought that it's unlikely that she will, a smaller Covenant fleet is here now, but a larger fleet will catch up eventually and glass the planet like they have with almost every other. He didn't voice his thoughts though, if she didn't know of glassing then it was best it stays that way. Taking another look around the area, it seemed they'd finally moved out of old town. The buildings were noticeably more modern with glass skyscrapers towering into the sky like hands reaching out to heaven. The sounds of combat grew closer, artillery could be heard firing and soaring through the air. Up above were a series of bridges and walkways, crossing between the several levels that were dozens and hundreds of stories high, they were on the ground floor or at least very close to it. It'd been a more recent trend in the last hundred or so years for massive vertical expansion, not to say that it wasn't done before, but never to the scale of New Alexandria or any of the other recent city hubs.

"Tell me, Cassian, I assume you travel a lot as a soldier, where have you gone? Seen any cool places?"

He was already regretting starting this conversation, she was right, he did travel a lot, but he definitely didn't have time to see the sights and take in the local culture. Though there were a few areas that most people would describe as beautiful or interesting, he'd never had an eye for it but that wasn't his purpose. He turned once more to her, saw the eyes of hers that had been distant and lost now focused on him.

"There was one planet I was on; this would be nearing a year and a half ago. The planet itself had only one massive ocean that spanned half the southern hemisphere, the rest of the planet was riddled with lakes. Almost none of the water was drinkable save a few lakes in the center that could be chemically processed to be drinkable." That was where the militia outpost had been based, it didn't take much to destroy the water filtration and after that the militia didn't last long, "The dirt was dark, not like anything here, it was black like obsidian, and there was a storm that raged constantly." His lips felt dry, it felt like forever since he spoken so much, and it was starting to feel uncomfortable, he put his focus back onto scanning the rooftops and watching over the column.

Victoria looked at the armored giant as he spoke, she wasn't sure what to make of the walking enigma. She wasn't very involved in the war effort and didn't know much of the UNSC, but her brother had been a foot soldier in the army before he died on Sigil III and he'd tell her stories whenever he had leave. He'd never spoken of anything like what she saw before her, but then again there was a lot about the war that even he didn't know or at the least never told her. She wasn't an idiot, she knew the UNSC was on the run and had been for a while, she just didn't know how bad humanity was losing. Then looking at the man walking beside her, she wasn't sure what to think, he was taller than any person she'd ever seen, his armor was…strange to say the least, it didn't seem to lack any sort of uniformity to it or be apart of any unit, the armor being noticeably devoid of any insignia despite the unusual color scheme. She'd found herself increasingly curious about the man under the armor, if anything she wouldn't be surprised if he was a cyborg or something crazy like that.

The rest of the journey was rather uneventful, the covenant forces had seemed to be preoccupied elsewhere and Cassian was thankful for that small gift. Even if it was a small patrol, they would've suffered heavy casualties. They passed by several small outposts until they reached the center of the forward operating base, it seemed that originally it was a government office of some sort, at the least it was massive, absolutely towering into the sky. Bridges and skyways connecting to it from all over, it seemed to be a key point in the area they were in now. Cassian could see artillery set up in dozens of windows up and down the entirety of the building. He talked with Sergeant Bekker before they split, she was going to gear up her squad in actual combat clothing and out of the undercover civilian garb. They wished each other the best of luck and shook hands before parting, Cassian had planned to head straight to Lieutenant Bradley before he noticed the wo- Victoria, standing off to the side.

"Victoria, meet up with the other civilians. It's best you got on the soonest evac out of here." He spoke with an exasperated tone.

"Ah right, I will. I wonder though…do you think we'll meet up again?"

"Its unlikely." He stated flatly

"Ah…"

Cassian sighed; this is why he had trouble dealing outside of other Spartans.

"Its doubtful that we'll meet but…it's not impossible. With the jammer still active they probably won't launch a civilian evacs in this area till its clear, you'll probably be here for at least a day. Probably more depending on how fast they run pelicans through, it's a city of several million so it'll take while." She didn't say anything but the subtle change in her demeanor signaled that he did something right. He was about to turn away when he heard her yelp, he turned to see that she had grabbed onto his elbow and had stumbled forward when he started walking, underneath all the armor he couldn't feel anything and with his enhanced strength he was more likely to pull her along than notice any resistance.

"I'm…uhh…sorry but I wanted to give you something before you left." Cassian tilted his head as she fished around in her pocket, he wasn't sure what a civilian could give him, but his curiosity was aroused. She pulled out metal chain and at first he thought it was a dog tag before she held it out to him, it was actually a pendant of some sort. It had a hollow triangular frame, inside was a wreathe that circled around a howling wolf. He stared at it a second before realizing this was what she wanted to give him, it was unusual.

"My brother…before he served, he was an artist. Had a big book of sketches that he loved to doodle in when he had the time. Of course, he couldn't bring any personal items with him to bootcamp so he left it as my place, I may have skimmed through the book and this sketch always stood out to be, I don't know why but it was my favorite. When he got out of bootcamp I gave him this exact pendant as a good luck charm, I'd had it made for him while he was training. It was one of the few things they managed to salvage when they found his body, so I guess it couldn't have been that good of a charm. Now though…I want you to have it. I don't know why, just like I'm not sure why I felt so attached this original drawing, but deep in my gut is the feeling that you should have it." Cassian stared at her, there was a spark in her eyes, a resolve that he could admire. He reached out and gently took the pendant from her, holding it in front of his visor he stared at it a moment longer before placing it in a spare pocket on his chest piece. He lightly placed a hand on her shoulders and nodded, she gave a full smile before she turned and walked away towards the other civilians, no words needed to be spoken. He patted his chest plate pocket and spun on his heel towards the main headquarters, he had a lot of work to do.


	9. Starry Night

**Sorokin Shopping District, Planetary Capital Viarosa**

**20:44 – Four Hours Since Covenant Arrival**

It didn't take much to convince the Lieutenant to let Cassian handle the jammer, civilian evacs were halted until the airspace could be cleared, and that couldn't be done until the aircraft could organize themselves and connect with a command, and that couldn't be done until the jammer was taken care of. Once it was destroyed, it would be the first step to repelling the covenant, or more accurately, surviving. They had a general idea of where it be, Lieutenant Bradley had informed him that they'd seen an exponential rise of Covenant in the Sorokin Shopping District and it was one of the first Covenant landing zones they had recorded, as soon as the troops started dropping there, the comms went offline. It wouldn't be a blind search however, they had tech specialists relying the data to Kara who would then combine it with the infield information she was gathering, it won't be easy with the Covenant troops, but at least he won't have to have to search every inch of every building. The only caveat being that the Sorokin Shopping District is nowhere close to the base and some few hundred meters above them, luckily, they'd had a Falcon to spare to drop him off near the site. Same as with New Alexandria there were multiple jammers, at least four, but other fireteams had already been tasked with handling them. During the briefing he managed to catch a glimpse of McCarthy's squad being deployed to handle a jammer out west, he felt confident that McCarthy could handle whatever was thrown his way.

He sat with his back to the wall, idly watching as shops, skyscrapers, and bridges bolted past them as they rose, each area they passed covered in a flurry of plasma and gunfire. It was late evening and the sun had cast a city in a hazy red hue, each burst of weapons or explosion lit up the Viarosa skyline like a lightshow.

The pilot's chatter cut him from his thoughts, "Alright spartan, the areas hot and the fighting is fierce, I'm gonna put us down a couple klicks from the jammer in this area. You'll have to fight your way through, but there's marine squads scattered around the area to provide backup." The falcon took a sharp right and positioned itself above a walkway overlooking the city. It lowered itself and hovered a few feet off the ground, Cassian stood up and hopped out, landing with a solid thud. "One last thing, your extraction isn't guaranteed. When you get rid of that jammer this whole area is going to be bombarded with comms chatter and calls for evac, we have to prioritize the civilians and high-ranking officials first. Our hands will be full with what we have, your best bet is to hop aboard a civilian evac or wait till the skies clear up." Cassian understood and nodded, the pilot gave him a weak salute before pulling the falcon out and away.

Cassian flipped the safety off of his M392 DMR, he managed to snag one from the makeshift armory before he left, it's a small thing but he felt better with this than the assault rifle strapped to his back.

"Kara, do we have an idea of where this jammer is?" He looked around, he was given two paths, one to the West and one to the East, though the Eastern one was covered in rubble and debris. He started walking towards the open path, further down the walkway it seemed to lead into a food court of some sort.

_"__To the Northwest, not far but we'll have to trek a bit to get there. I'm picking up friendly com chatter up ahead, probably a group of marines that got backed into a corner, sounds like they could use some backup." _She replied, a minor sense of urgency laced in her words.

Cassian picked up his pace, when he entered the food court, he could see marines hunkered down behind tables and counters, taking shots at the covenant where they could. On the far side, opposite of where he was standing, were a dozen grunts and jackals and a few elites commanding from behind. He brought up his DMR and fired a series of shots at the jackals, his first shots bounded off the shields turning their attention from the marines to him. He ducked to a pillar next to him as plasma bolts whizzed by, he peaked the corner with his DMR and let loose a another set of shots at the jackals, two got stunned and went down went a bullet went through their heads, a third one had dodged at the last second but the final bullet hit a limb. He turned his aim to the grunts and fired, four shots for four grunts. He'd gotten cocky though and plasma fire riddled his shields, he ducked back behind the pillar and waited for his shields to regenerate. Four grunts and two jackals down, plus one injured, left five left, not including the three elites. He heard an explosion and some cheers, it seemed the marines got some covenant with a grenade, peaking past the column he saw a dead elite splattered against the wall and the last two grunts down. He decided to put pressure on the survivors, crouching he dashed from his cover and moved forwards towards an overturned table, the whole time laying down a stream of fire from his DMR to put the covenant into cover. One of his blind shots managed to hit a jackal in the foot, leaving an opening for the closest marine to let fire out a steady burst into the jackal. The last jackal put its hands over its head and started running but didn't make it far before a sharpshooter from the side put it down with a clean shot to the neck.

The last two elites started to realize it was a losing battle, but their culture only made them more enraged and eager to prove their honor. One on the right fired into the marines hiding behind the restaurant counters, a few shots hit their mark as the marines went down screaming. Cassian took a frag off his belt and chucked it, it landed next to the elite and blasted, it didn't kill the it, but its shields were down. He fired the last few rounds in his magazine, together they put a hole through the elite's chest, it went down with a gargling screech. The final elite couldn't handle the combined power of the remaining half-dozen marines, its shields went out with a flare and then it crumpled under the combined pressure of battle rifles and assault rifles. Tossing his empty mag to the ground and reloading, he called over to the marines.

"Sitrep."

The marine spoke with a light accent, "Not so hot, we were picking up civilians for evac when we got jumped from the back. Fifteen or so civilians but no wounded, anyone that was hit in the last fight is dead." Cassian asked what their plans for evac are, "There's a high-rise east of here, Ariethe Tower, it has a helipad and we've got flares for pick-up if the comms weren't back online yet."

_"__Based on the map data I collected, to get to Ariethe Tower, we have to pass by Acadia Park which I believe is where the jammer is."_ Kara informed him, he gave her genuine thanks, his objectives had been quite easier since she'd come along and he'd made no effort to hide that fact.

"Follow me Corporal, we share a similar destination. At Arcadia Park we'll have so I can take out the jammer. The airwaves should be free for you to call in the evac." The marine nodded and gathered his troops and the civilians, Cassian took point and scouted ahead, following his compass and marker he headed west through the door the covenant came out of. There was a small hallway with vending machines and trashcans on either side, corpses littered the floor. The hallway opened up into a massive atrium filled with store of every sort, it went up several stories and where a skylight once existed now there only remained a shattered ceiling. The room offered little cover, but it didn't matter, the only covenant were a few slothful grunts sleeping on the floor. Cassian unhooked his second of three grenades from his belt and quietly pulled the pin, stepping slightly closer he released the strike lever and rolled the grenade between the circle of dozing Unggoy. He didn't slow his pace as the grenade exploded, killing all the grunts around it, he continued to the door at the far end of the atrium. Waiting for the marines and civilians to catch up, he scanned past the doorway. It opened up into an outside walkway, one could see the city engulfed in the darkness of night, fires scattered throughout the city shone like beacons. Anti-air peppered the sky, a M-95 Lance nearby unleashed a salvo of missiles onto a passing Seraph causing it to explode in a blueish purple haze of plasma. As the marines caught up, he took a sharp right out of the doorway and followed the path North.

The trip to rooftop park was tense but uneventful, the pathway was tight, and it seemed the Covenant saw no reason to station patrols on it, well that's what he had assumed until they neared the park. A marine swore in disbelief behind him, he echoed the sentiment. Stationed at the edge of the park were two heavy plasma turrets manned by grunts, the entrance was blocked by a covenant barricade. A shade turret could be heard in the background, firing upon any poor souls stuck in the skies, and worst of all, he could hear the barbaric growls of brutes somewhere beyond the barricade. He felt a surge of unusual disgust for the overgrown apes, but it didn't change the difficult situation they found themselves.

As if reading his mind, Kara spoke up, _"The turrets themselves aren't hard to take care of, but more grunts will just keep filling in for the one that dies, and in such a narrow space with little cover we'd get shredded. Climbing over the barricade is possible, but it'll take time for the marines, we don't have enough fire power to destroy it either."_

"What if we split the load; I get over the barricade, take on the brutes and keep the fire focused one me. The marines keep my back clear and take shots at any grunt on the turrets?"

_"__That's ridiculous, you'd be exposed with little cover relying on frankly average marines. Don't be such an idiot"_ She scolded him, like a mother would a child.

"I'll make it work." Ignoring any further protest she voiced, he explained the plan to the marines and had the civilians lay flat on their stomachs, it's the best they could do. Staying low and blending into the darkness, Cassian reached the barricade unnoticed. Eyeing the top of the barricade, Cassian got into and low crouch and sprung up, his fingers barely gripping the top. Deliberately and quietly he pulled himself up and over, making sure to land as quiet as possible. With a clear view of the park his thoughts were confirmed, there was a group of four brutes without a chieftain, most likely left here because they were dead weight to the war pack. Slowly walking to the right of the barricade, he came up behind the grunt manning the turret and slit its throat in one smooth motion, it gurgled before slumping forward dead. Turning back to face the quad of brutes, he pulled his last grenade and tossed it into the center of the group. It wouldn't kill them, not even close, but they didn't have shields and would leave them dazed enough for him to start the second phase of his plan.

On the cue of the explosion, the marines began to open fire on any grunt they could set their sights on. Using the momentarily dazed brutes, Cassian grabbed the plasma turret and ripped it off it's stand. He held down the trigger and opened fire on the brutes, scorching plasma fire searing their thick hides as they yelled in pain. Two went down in a mess of smoldering pile of flesh and muscle before the turret went dry. Tossing it to the side, one of the brutes gave a ferocious roar as he berserked towards Cassian. He drew his assault rifle from his back and opened fire into its face, but it didn't even slow it down, it still charged at him with a face of rage, bits of its skull visible from the weapons fire. It lunged at Cassian when it was only a few meters away, its massive arms swinging into Cassian's guts sending him flying across the park. He landed with a pained grunt into the grass and rolled a way, he had probably fractured a rib with that. Wearily rolling onto his back, he saw the same brute rearing up for a second assault, he went to reach for his assault rifle but both it and the DMR had been knocked loose in the hit, laying in the grass a couple meters away. The thudding steps as the brute stampeded closer resounded like thunder in Cassian's ears, he drew his pistol, fumbling initially as he brought it up in front of him. The ape was nearing him as he opened fire with his magnum, once again scoring headshots and shredding the flesh of the beast. It was enough as it fell face down and tumbled over itself landing only inches away from Cassian. He breathed a sigh of relief and stood up still feeling the pain in his chest, that left one brute left.

Looking towards it, he saw that it had stood off to the side the entire time of the fight, it gave a disgusting laugh and pointed at Cassian before drawing a spiker. It was watching their fight as entertainment and based on its darker armor it was a major, this would be easy. Walking over to his fallen DMR, he picked it up and checked the mag, full capacity. Turning towards the brute major he fired a precise series of shots at its head before it'd helmet flew off, enraged at the speed at which it'd already almost lost, it blindly fired off a series of spiker rounds. Cassian rolled out of the way, managing to avoid most shots but the few spikers that hit their mark were deflected by his shields. He quickly stood up from his roll and took aim, his next shot pierced its skull and put it down like the rabid animal it was. Collecting his assault rifle, he walked over to the barricaded and kicked it over, it landed with a thud and the marines tared in awe before they crossed into the park. He still had to find the jammer though, as well as clearing out the shade turret to help those in the air, he told the marines to take five and let the civilians rest while he searched for the jammer. The park itself wasn't massive, but it was dense with foliage and ponds, it made navigation a bit trickier than he'd planned.

_"__You know what you did was reckless."_

Kara was a great help to him, even in the finer details like increased awareness and reflexes, but sometimes he missed the silence. Carter and ONI would chew him out as well, but it never felt as…personal as it does with an A.I in your head.

"Yes I know, there's two of us now and I have to think act for both of us." He waved his hand dismissively and he cleared some tall reeds in a shallow pond.

_"__Its more than that, you fractured a rib or two right? Probably even broke them." _That was unusual, it seemed like actual worry as opposed to her more apathetic concern. _"Its operational concern, you won't function efficiently if your hurt."_ Of course, he thought to himself.

He hesitated a few moments before speaking, "Alright…I'll take greater care in the future."

Coming upon where the jammer should be instead laid a rather large mound, to the side was a metal door that had been ripped opened. Walking towards the door he saw the words, '**Restricted Access – Employees Only**', it was a maintenance area, the jammer was probably hidden away inside. Walking inside it was a small but tall room, the only light came from a flickering bulb in the corner, but what drew his attention wasn't the jammer located in the corner. It was the half-eaten corpses littering the floor, it wasn't much a secret within the military that some of the more primitive and carnal aliens of the covenant had no qualms of eating freshly slaughtered humans. He'd even heard bits during his time at ONI that it wasn't unusual for disgraced members of the Covenant to be fed to starving prisoners. He walked over to the jammer, pressing a few keys he deactivated it, for safe measure he punched a hole into it and ripped out a handful of wires.

"Lieutenant Bradley, this is Lieutenant Cassian, the Covenant jammer in my sector is down."

"**_Excellent work spartan! Another squad just took down the third jammer, this only leaves one left. Make your way to an extraction point but be prepared to be deployed to the final jammer if it's not down soon._**"

"Understood sir, Cassian out." He took one last look at the desecrated corpses and left to regroup with the marines. Ariethe Tower was easily visible from the park, dominating the skies and tearing through the clouds it was a behemoth of a building, it wouldn't take long to get to it and radio for evac. They began the march to the tower engulfed in the void of the night, their only light being the blaze of the burning city.


	10. The City of Flames

**Ariethe Tower, Planetary Capital Viarosa**

**21:57 – Five Hours Since Covenant Arrival**

Cassian leaned back against the wall of the elevator, the pain from his fractured ribs easing slightly as his weight readjusted, a quiet sigh of relief escaping his lips. He was no stranger to pain or injuries, but it seemed that fate had it in for him, it felt like almost of all today was him getting injured in one way or another. The trip to Ariethe Tower had been quiet, it seemed that the Covenant in the area weren't interested in anything outside of Acadia Park, thankfully most of the elevators were still working, giving Cassian and the others a small reprieve from the fighting. Opposite of him was a glass window overlooking the city, flames lapped the heavens as they rose from the city skyline, it was beautifully destructive, like a work of sublime art, had the Covenant not been bringing the city to its end even he could imagine himself appreciating the beauty of such a view. Its been something he's noticed within himself, that he's been taking the environment in more, first in the Hrangel Mountains and now with this sublime view, maybe it was his brush with death, not like his other close calls, but a truly blurring of the line moment on Reach where he was practically dead, it was…unusual for him.

"You all right there Spartan?"

Cassian turned to see one of the marines in the elevator speaking with him, "Hmm?"

"I said are you alright? You've been favoring the left side of your body since we had a brush up with those brutes, I could have our field medic take a look at ya if you want."

"I'll live."

"Alright suit yourself, just don't push yourself too hard. We're only human after all."

The marine turned towards the rest of his squad; Cassian supposed he was right but his injury wasn't affecting his operational efficiency yet, if it got worse he'd deal with it, but right now the third jammer was still running and he didn't have time to waste. Lieutenant Bradley had informed him that forces were being rerouted to bulk up existing fronts, with that he wouldn't get any marine support to tackle on the jammer. However, Staff Sergeant McCarthy's squad was also being moved to aid with the third jammer, Cassian would have ODST support, but they'd have to meet up before moving in. According to intel, the final jammer was located on the top floor of the headquarters for a banking conglomerate, enemy numbers inside the bank were unknown, hence the meet-up outside before pushing in together. The elevator stopped move and the glass door slid open, revealing a wide helipad with a pelican and two falcon escorts already waiting there.

Cassian's comms crackled to life as he walked out with the marines and civilians, "_**Lieutenant, I've got orders to transport to Calla Interplanetary Union to take out the last jammer. Falcon on the right, hop in and I'll drop you off!**_" As the marines and civilians crowded into the pelican, Cassian jogged over to the falcon and hopped in, he slammed the inside of the pelican twice with his fist to signal he was ready to leave. Below him the roof of Ariethe Tower began to vanish as the falcon lifted up and flew away, below him thick smoke flowed between the buildings, flashes of light could be seen through the smoke accompanied by the pops of weapons fire and explosions. Longswords screeched on by, clearing the skies of banshees and seraphs, the falcon shook in the wake of the powerful craft, Cassian grabbed onto the edge of his seat as he saw them turning back for a second run. Their turns making even Cassian wince at the g-force they must be subjecting themselves too, having been a test pilot for the Longswords and holding other experience with UNSC aircraft, he knew those tight turns would knock out all but the fiercest pilots.

"We're getting close now, be prepared to drop they've got anti-air pelting the skies." The pilot yelled out over the comms, sure enough fuel rods tore through the air, some exploding so close he could feel the heat ebbing through his armor. Looking over the edge of the falcon, he could see ground quickly approaching, standing him he hung onto the side of falcon and as soon as it was a few meters off the ground he let his grip loosen with the metal passing his fingers by. Landing with a thunderous crack as the cement beneath him shattered, he waved the pilot off, the aircraft's propellers blending into the war ambiance of the background. Cassian looked around; he'd landed right by the entrance of the bank but the ODSTS still weren't in sight. The entrance to the bank laid upon a rise in the skyscraper, from his position there was one singular staircase in center of the incline that went for at least two stories. A light patrol of grunts and jackal covered the staircase with a Brute major overseeing his squad from the top most point of the stairs, he'd easily be able to secure this entrance on his own, making it safer for the ODSTs to land. Going into a crouch, he slowly walked along a waist high wall at the foot of the stairs until he reached the end of the way. Popping up he opened fire with his DMR at the grunt closest to him, one went down when a bullet pierced its methane tank, sending its corpse spiraling wildly before exploding next to another grunt. His next shots weren't as focused as plasma fired started whirring past him, it took three shots to the grunts body for it to slump to the ground. Taking cover behind the wall, he could see the plasma bolts skimming the top of the wall, a hissing sound filled his ears as a plasma grenade landed right in front of him. Rolling out of cover as it exploded, he blindly fired into the grunts with his DMR as he took cover behind a large stature while he waited a second for his shields to regenerate. Peeking from behind the statute, he cleanly shot another grunt through the head as it armed a grenade, it fell to the floor and exploded with spectacular intensity as it set off a chain reaction among the final grunts' grenades. That only left four jackals and the brute taking wild shots from the top. Carefully moving his way up the steps, he took precision shots at a jackal's weak points, stumbling it he put a shot into its chest followed by a round to its head.

A supercharged plasma bolt came from the side, draining his shields instantly, he ducked behind another wall and quickly finished off the jackal that drained his shields. The last two jackals began to flee in terror at the sight of their brethren being put down like animals, he managed to kill one when it turned it's back, but the other he only skimmed. Not that it mattered much anyway, the brute had begun making its way down the steps and picked up the fleeing jackal by its throat before crushing the buzzard in its hand and tossing its limp corpse off the side of the building. The brute stared him down before it beat its chest with an ear-splitting roar as it started firing off rounds from its brute-shot. The wall he has taking cover beyond exploded in a shower of rubble as he tumbled backwards, he righted himself mid-roll and brought himself up to full stance. Aiming at the brute's head, he let off a quick series of shots with most hitting their mark but a few going wide as he was forced to move. The brute laid down a heavy fire of explosives, keeping Cassian on the move, dashing up the stairs he switched to his MA37 assault rifle and began to lay down constant stream of fire in return. The armor piercing rounds tore through the brute's armor but also served to enrage it more, it didn't get a chance to berserk as its head made a sickening snap as a sniper rifle round pierced its skull. His confusion slowly turned into understanding when he saw a pelican passing by overhead with the distinct armor of an ODST sitting on the ramp, sniper rifle in hand, Cassian gave a wave of appreciation. The brief respite didn't last long however as the anti-air fire began to zero in on the pelican, a fuel-rod shot landing a direct it on its left wing. The pelican began to spiral downwards towards the bank, Cassian double timed it up the stairs to avoid the crashing aircraft, it hit the ground with its side, tumbling over a come times before coming to a stop halfway up the incline. Dashing back down towards the pelican, he looked inside to see McCarthy's ODST squad scattered around the troop bay, for his luck, or lack thereof with staying away from injuries, it seemed this squad was cursed with being ably to land a pelican.

"Jesus Christ again? I swear this fucking Spartan's cursed with flying, if we have to stick with the rust bucket, I say we drive next time." One of the ODST's grumbled as he stood up.

"Anyone hurt?" Cassian asked, ignoring the jibe.

"Grimlock's dead, shrapnel slit his throat." McCarthy stood up from the ODST corpse, swearing under his breath, "Damn shame, he wouldn't wanted better than this."

"Yeah, ah shit I think my leg's broken." Another brought up, it was the sniper from earlier, Cassian vaguely remembered his callsign being Jeger. Walking over, he looped his hands under the man's arms and slowly dragged him out, propping him against the wall of the bank. Crouching down he could see the leg was bent in an unnatural angle, it was likely the bone was sticking out from the skin beneath his armor.

Another ODST came up behind him, "I'll handle it big guy, I'm the squad's combat medic."

"Tell me Doc, tell it to me straight, will I ever be able to play the piano again?" Jeger spoke with exaggerated pity.

"You'll live Jeger, though I doubt you ever knew how to play the piano in the first place.'

"God what a fucking killjoy Barracuda, you ever heard of the word fun? Probably not."

Tuning them out, Cassian relaxed against the wall and closed his eyes, his ribs were flaring up more, they turn from fractured to broken soon if they hadn't already. Opening his eyes, he saw a familiar ODST walking towards him, a wolf's skull adorned on their helmet, one of the few ODST's he distinctly remembered simply because it seemed like she could never stop talking.

"Dreadwolf." He stated plainly

"Hot damn you do remember me." Faint surprise underlying her words.

"You're hard to forget."

"Heh I suppose so, though for different reasons then what you're probably thinking of. Unlike some of the others, I'm thrilled to be working with you again, where you go chaos seems to follow. I heard that you were on the ground during the initial invasion, and now once again we're teaming up to take on a mysterious jammer that took out an entire squad. Exciting stuff isn't it?"

"If you say so," Cassian readjusted his place on the wall, hissing with the pain, "Fuck." He huffed as the pain exacerbated.

Dreadwolf tilted her held, "You okay there?"

"Got couple fractured ribs, though based on the pain I'd say at least one of them is broken."

A slight gasp escaped her lips, "Holy shit, how are you still walking. Hey Barracuda, you got any pain meds? Lieutenant over here broke some ribs."

The medic turned to face them with a snap of his head, disbelief in his words "Broken?! You sure? Well fuck, you'll need a surgeon for that, I could give it a go, but we'd need more than then what we got now. Though these should help with the pain for now." The medic tossed Cassian a bottle of pills, desperate for the relief, he released the seals on his helmet and twisted it off, swallowing the pills in a single gulp.

Dreadwolf was surprised at what she saw in front of her, "I always doubted if you were really human under there, seems like it's just your humanity that's lacking. Unless that's just fake skin and underneath it all you're some twisted fuse of machine and flesh." All ODSTs knew that Spartans were human, but it was their coldness, their disconnect, and of course the incident years ago with the kid that drew this myth that they weren't human at all. Nobody would put it past ONI to do any number of fucked up experiments, so with every Spartan encounter there was always an underlying uncertainty in what was truly underneath that armor. What she saw in front of her was as human as any of her squadmates, he bore an exhausted expression, dark bags underneath his eyes, unkept brown hair atop his head with dark brown eyes, it was the eyes that drew the most attention though. They'd seemed detached from reality, cold didn't seem to aptly describe them, the closet she could get to putting it into words was seeing a robot with he thousand yard stare, a distinct lack of humanity but also something some pervasively human as well, it was hard to put into words.

"Heh, Jeger you might have stiff competition for being the beauty of the group. Looks like lean and mean over isn't half bad compared to the rest of us." The final ODST spoke up.

Jeger chuckled from his spot on the ground, "Get the fuck outta here Queens, he's got some rugged attraction sure, but me? I'm a pretty boy, totally different levels, besides I've got the eyelashes that girls would die for. Ain't that right Dreadwolf?"

"Stuff it, go spend some time with the Navy if you want to keep sucking each other's dicks."

"Don't mind if I do." Barracuda snidely replied.

Cassian reattached his helmet, the pain in his chest already subsiding like a cool wave washing over him. Something had stopped the third team from taking out the jammer, maybe it was just poor luck on the squad's part or perhaps there was something powerful lurking within the depths of bank. Whatever it was, it'd need to be dealt with no matter the costs.


	11. They Never Learn

**A/N: I apologize for the long wait, this chapter never felt right and I rewrote the entire thing several times, hell originally the short last chapter was supposed to be apart of this one but stuff always seems to come up. Even now I don't feel great about this chapter, so if it feels oddly paced or other issues I apologize but I just really wanted to move past this chapter, regardless please enjoy and stay safe!**

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**Calla Interplanetary Banking Union, Planetary Capital Viarosa**

**22:32 – Six Hours Since Covenant Arrival**

They slowly moved through the empty carcass of the building, so far they'd seen no sign of the previous squad nor what had brought their mission to a halt. Cassian had taken point with McCarthy's ODST squad, Delta-3, following behind him, or rather those of the squad that could come. Gimlock had died in the Pelican crash, the other ODSTs had sparred a few words for him in a brief memorial, Cassian had stayed out of the way, it wasn't his place though after Noble Team, he could at least better understand their feelings. The marksmen Jeger had broken his leg, immobilizing him until the jammer had been dealt with and evac could be called, the medic Barracuda had opted to stay behind for support, leaving only three ODSTs left to back Cassian as they their way towards the jammer.

"Hallway's clear." Cassian announced as he cleared another dead-end hallway.

"I don't like this, not one fucking bit." Dreadwolf spoke up with an uncertain tone.

"Gee that's certainly unique to you because I for one am having am absolute blast, the time of my life if you will. In fact, I think these eerily empty building is simply splendid!" Queen exclaimed with exaggerated exuberance.

"I swear I'll crush your balls like walnut."

"Oh yeah that's my shit."

"Both of ya, shut it." McCarthy growled; he was at the back of the group keeping an eye out for anything suspicious that tried to sneak up behind them.

Ruins laid around them, what was once a pristine bank aimed for only the wealthiest clients was now a gutted warzone. The lights flickered in time with the pounding ordnance outside the building, it probably wouldn't be long until a stray shot wiped out the energy grid entirely. The hallway they were in split into multiple sections, with some brief help with Kara he'd decided to go to left, towards the main vault. Kara had been comparing building schematics with the signals she'd been intercepting, she told him matter-of-factly that the jammer was in the main bank vault in the center of the building. He decided not to comment on her boasting tone, questioning an A.I that was exponentially smarter than him seemed to be a fruitless and ultimately ridiculous idea. Eventually they walked into a large open room flanked with Romanesque pillars on both sides, the ceiling was a massive skylight at least three stories high, through it moonlight night sky peaked through. Opposite of the room laid the entrance to the vault behind a now empty security checkpoint, standing like a monolith in the center of the room was a gaudy ornate fountain miraculously still running. Cassian wasn't one for art, never had a reason to care for it instead finding greater appreciation in a well-designed weapon and the occasional book, but despite that the entire room had felt lavishly vulgar. It seemed he wasn't alone in his thoughts, as they walked into the room, Queen quipped behind him, "What the fuck is the point of this room, is this where my tax dollars are going? I could scrape some trash off the streets of Long Island that would look better than this."

"This isn't a government building you jackass." Dreadwolf sighed.

"Your point?"

"Sarge help me out here." She pleaded.

"This is a special kind of stupid, best to just leave em' be. Though I won't argue his taste, this room is god awful." He chuckled.

"On that we're agreed."

They walked further into the room, passing the fountain when Cassian spied a shimmer pass in front of him. Covenant camouflage was good, nearly indistinguishable when the user was still, but Cassian was had been molded into the perfect Covenant killing machine, this was his purpose. He held up a hand to stop the others, it seemed that the ODSTs had picked up on the movement as well.

"Fucking covvies, they talk about honor but still hiding in the shadows like cowards." Dreadwolf spit the words from her mouth.

Kara spoke up, _"I've sensed three moving around, elites most likely, there might be more but it's doubtful."_

Cassian relayed Kara's note to the others, the next few seconds passed in a tense silence as neither side wanted to make the first move. He didn't wait to give the elites a chance, the first moment he saw the shimmer of camouflage out of the corner of his eye he turned on a time and brought his DMR to fire, laying a series of well placed shots in the elite. The bullets deactivated its invisibility, showing the sleek designs of a spec ops soldier, they were stealthy but their armor was generally weaker than the typical elite. It let out a surprised worble before tumbling backwards towards the wall, it unceremoniously fell against it leaving a dark blue smear as it slid down the wall. With the tension shattered, they came under fire from an elite hiding behind the pillars, firing shots with a needle rife to keep them suppressed. They ducked behind the fountain only to forced back into the open as sword-wielding Zealot uncloaked itself near the ODSTs.

"McCarthy focus your squads fire on the ranged one, I'll handle the Zealot." He growled as he back stepped the elite's swing. The ODSTs opened fire on the one by the column forcing it to take cover as they slowly moved up. His mind raced back to the encounter at Vizegrad Relay, that time he'd been caught off guard and it resulted in the death of an injured marine, this time would end differently.

The zealot rolled out of the way of his rifle fire then leaped towards him, he narrowly sidestepped the attack giving the elite's face a weighty bash with his elbow as it passed. It fell to the floor with a heavy crash, cracking the once pristine marble floor. He opened fire on it with his DMR but it wasted no time in recovering, deftly bringing itself to a stand while also drawing a plasma pistol from its belt. It overcharged the pistol as Cassian could see the crackling plasma ready to burst forth from the gun like a volcano, the Zealot unleashed the plasma bolt with a precisely aimed shot. Anytime attempt he made to evade it was immediately canned as he felt a shocking pain envelop is entire body as his armor's systems went haywire, that brief moment of time was enough for the Zealot to begin another attack. It thrust the energy sword forward towards his stomach, Cassian only barely stopped it from completely impaling his body as he forcefully grabbed the elite's sword wielding arm in-between both his hands and pushed back with all his might. The elite redoubled its efforts by using its free hand to push back, Cassian felt his torso getting warmer as the energy sword came closer followed by the beginning of immense pain. The prongs of the sword passed through his armor like it was paper, the tips piercing his blistering pale skin, scorching his skin as it slowly dug deeper into his body. He grit his teeth, unsure of how more pain he could take until the agony left all at once, relief immediately filling his body. Looking up he saw the Dreadwolf has jumped onto the Zealots back, bringing her serrated blade into the neck of the elite with a vicious yell. The elite stumbled back dropping its sword as it tried to grasp her only letting out a string of incomprehensible bellows, the only thing Cassian could make out was a guttural utterance of 'imp'. Eventually it got a firm grab on the ODST tossing her forward overhead, she landed with a thud and a muffled grunt, wasting no time Cassian charged the split-chinned fuck and impaled it with a knife of his own. With a wretched sound of metal on metal, Cassian strenuously drew the knife up the Zealots body, gutting it like the dammed animal it was. An ear-piercing screech erupted from the elite's throat as it's steaming guts began to spill out onto the white stainless marble floor. Desperately it tried to hold its innards within itself, a futile effort as it slumped to the ground with a pathetic squelch as it landed in the pile of its own intestines.

He let out a sigh of relief as he felt his shields regenerate, looking up he saw the fallen corpse of the ranged elite poking out from behind one of the pillars.

"_I…hope to never experience that again. It felt like my entire body was being stirred from the inside." _Kara remarked, disgust lacing her words. Cassian couldn't imagine how it would feel more an A.I, a being composed entirely of circuits of technology to be overloaded with Covenant plasma.

"That makes two of us, though based on our luck I wouldn't hold your breath…or…binary code?" He chuckled at his own poor joke as Kara simply sighed. Though his enjoyment was short lived as he winced at the minor stab wound on his torso, grunting he turned to see Dreadwolf pushing herself off the ground.

"Thanks for the help, don't think I would have lasted much longer."

"Eh its nothing." She casually waved him off as she stood with a grunt, "You make a pretty good meat shield for the plasma weapons, though I guess you're lucky you got me. Most ODSTs might've let you become a human shish kabob first."

"That's a shame, I probably wouldn't be a very good one without seasoning."

"I was wondering if they installed a humor function on you, seems like it might be a bit faulty though." She jeered as she headed back towards the rest of Delta-3.

"_Seems I'm not the only one who thinks you have an awful sense of humor." _Kara remarked as Cassian reloaded his DMR.

"I'm being attacked physically and psychologically; I think this is some kind of war crime."

He regrouped with Delta-3, it seemed that McCarthy and Queen had no issues with the other elite, between the two of them it couldn't focus it's shots, instead only blindly firing as they kept it suppressed. Once they got close enough the combined fire from them both tore through it's shields with ease and shredded the armor like swiss cheese. Leaving the three dead elites, they passed through into the vault, the door looked like a massive cog though the Covenant hadn't wasted time trying to open it instead blasting a hole straight through feet of reinforced steel. The vault itself was lined with lockboxes covering every inch of the walls, in the center laid a series of tables as well as the corpses of the previous squad. A dozen marines scattered on the floor, sliced, pierced, severed any number of ways courtesy of the now dead elites in the other room. Cassian thought back to New Alexandria, he should've seen this coming, he already ranted his own mind to boredom about the Covenants lack of tactics the fact that they constantly fall into a pitfall of the same strategies. They pulled the same thing back in New Alexandria except it had been drones instead of elites, luring in the poor bastards with the jammers before coming out of hiding to slaughter whatever unfortunate infantryman had been sent into to deal with it.

At the far end of the room sat the jammer, in the barren room practically towering like a monolith over everything else. Walking over to it Cassian noticed that one marine had crawled halfway across the room to try to disable the jammer, a long red smear marking where he'd been unfortunately sliced by an energy sword before attempting his hopeless albeit admirable effort. Disabling the jammer was practically second nature to him now, swiping the right keys causing it to shutdown permanently.

Radioing Lieutenant Bradley, he motioned for Delta-3 to begin the short trek back outside, "Sir, all jammers in the area have been disabled."

"Fan-fucking-tastic, time to bomb these fuckers back to the god damn stone age." The Lieutenant chuckled, "Evac is being sent out immediately, good job Spartan."

The ODSTs talked amongst themselves are they left the vault to rendezvous with Jeger and Barracuda outside the entrance. Cassian kept to himself thinking about what his next orders would be, technically he was still under the command of Admiral Montinaro but the jammers had prevented any communication, when he got back to base he'd check in with the Admiral after he got his fractured ribs dealt with. Though his work under the Admiral was still when it was assumed the insurrectionists would be the biggest threat, now that the conflicts escalated he wouldn't be surprised if he was reassigned to another unit or if he got special orders from ONI.

Pushing those thoughts from his head, he instead focused on getting back to the base. Walking outside he noted with no surprise that Jeger and Barracuda were exactly where they left them. As then began to animatedly talk amongst themselves, Cassian took a seat on the railing lining the bank's exterior. McCarthy walked up taking a seat next to him, taking off his helmet the older vet took a cigarette and lighter from a pouch from his shoulder, he offered one to Cassian.

"I don't smoke."

"Pff damn miracle." McCarthy snorted before lighting the cigarette, he took a long inhale then slowly exhaled a large puff of smoke as they stared upon the burning city skyline. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you Spartan's have been pretty shit at your job."

Cassian shot him a confused look, though he wouldn't be able to see it under his visor, McCarthy elaborated. "You guys were supposed to win the war, be the big game changer to put us toe to toe with Covenant. All the Spartans I've seen do a hell of a job but yet here we are, each day the Covenant get closer to Earth. I ain't pushing the blame onto anyone here…guess I'm just tryin to say that it feels like fighting the inevitable ya know?"

"Sure, but I guess ONI figured that if we can't win the war, might as well try to make life a living hell for the Covenant."

"Amen to that brother!" The older man slapped Cassian on the back. They sat in silence for the next few minutes waiting for the evac to arrive, when it finally did, they'd been told by the pilot that the Covenant hadn't attacked the main base for the last thirty minutes. They'd stopped blindly charging into UNSC fortifications, once the jammers had been cleared a squad of Longsword escorts and Claymore heavy bombers had dropped their payload on the largest mass of Covenant forces. It'd completely decimated any part of the city caught in the blast radius, all that was left was a crater scorched darker than the night sky. The silver lining was they'd accomplished their original plan, the largest grouping of Covenant forces had similarly been wiped from the face of the planet. There was still heavy fighting throughout the city with reinforcements coming in by the hour, but FOBs set up throughout the city had been granted a short relief to reinforce their perimeters, evac more civilians, and establish communications with other forces, most notably the UNSC carriers in atmosphere. Whether through luck or skill, it seems the UNSC ships have been holding their own against the small Covenant fleet, both retreating to opposite ends of the planet to assess damage but in the eyes of the UNSC it was a temporary victory.

The pelican tore through the skies of Viarosa with ease without fear of banshees or seraphs taking pot shots at it. Through the opened hatch at the back the darkened skies held an eeirey glow as moonlight engulfed the city of flames. Eventually the pelican began to drop rapidly in altitude as they neared the base, passing over it Cassian could see that the chaos of earlier had settled into quiet lull as the soldiers tried to enjoy the brief respite before they'd be thrown into the fray. Landing with a practiced ease the, the occupants of the pelican found the Medical Corps waiting for them, the corps quickly took Jeger and motioned for Cassian to follow.

"You're not half bad Lieutenant, maybe we'll see you around." Barracuda gave a brief wave as the rest of Delta-3 focused on moving Grimlock's corpse from the pelican. Cassian gave a brief nod in return before following the medical personnel. They led him into a large temporary shelter, inside were rows upon rows of cots and surgical tables, most filled with soldiers in agony. Jeger and Cassian were led to an open set of tables where they began to remove the armor surrounding Jeger's broken leg, Cassian however was another problem entirely. For the most part, the removal of a Spartan's armor was aided but machines though obviously there were a number of times when such technology simply wouldn't be accessible. As such, most Spartans were also trained to remove and reequip their own armor, it wasn't impossible just a major pain in the ass. The process was slow though far though a small blessing existed in that it wasn't a full armor removal, just enough to pull the gel-layer skinsuit down to his fractured ribs, although realistically speaking they were probably broken now. Pale skin contrasted sharply with the darkly purple bruising on his chest, lower on his body laid new set of scars from the energy sword.

Jeger rolled his head to the side, he had pale skin with shaggy dirty blonde hair, sharp blues like cobalt seemed to cut through everything, "Hot damn you look like a human pin cushion _min venn (_my friend_)_." His accent emphasizing the final words, the doctor shushed him before turning to Cassian.

"We're going to create a small cauterized incision above your ribs, through which we will then inject bone-knitting polymer to set the bones and expedite osteocytes production. You'll need at least two hours rest for the bones to set properly."

Cassian nodded in understanding, he had been planning to rest as soon as he got back anyone, this just knocks out two birds with one stone. Closing his eyes a he felt a quick stab of pain above his ribs as he drifted into unconsciousness where he was plagued by nightmares of a burning city.


End file.
